he thought it might take up to ten years to renegotiate the deal, clearly the wrong man the job, the only regret i have is that he did not go before the referendum. spectacular own goal, the only way that we will deliver a successful workable brexit is precisely with the expertise provided by people like ivan rogers. the uk's ambassador to the eu, sir ivan rogers has resigned, just three months before official brexit talks begin. a gun has been found in the car of the man shot dead by police during a "pre—planned" operation near the m62, in huddersfield. there are more arrests in turkey after the new year's eve nightclub shooting, but the suspected gunman is still on the run. a british man is said to have been killed in syria fighting with kurdish forces against islamic state militants. ryan lock had told his family he was going to turkey on holiday. a 48—hour strike among cabin crew at british airways over pay is to be held next week. also coming up: in the us, plans to reduce the powers of an independent ethics watchdog are dropped. after donald trump questioned their priorities, republicans in the us congress

withdraw a controversial initiative to strip an independent ethics committee of its powers. and, going full—circle. how vinyl is making a comeback, hitting a 25—year high. the uk's most senior diplomat to the european union has quit, just weeks after warning it could take a decade to reach a trade deal with the european union following brexit. sir ivan rogers' resignation comes less than three months before the government expects to start formal talks on leaving the eu. his comments put him at the centre of a political row, with leave campaigners accusing him of being unduly pessimistic on brexit, while others argue

he was simply reporting the mood in brussels. here's our political correspondent carole walker. voiceover: behind the darkened windows, at the prime minister's side, as she arrived at last month's eu summit, sir ivan rogers tried to keep a low profile. but his warning that it could take the uk ten years to get a new eu trade deal overshadowed what was already a difficult occasion for theresa may. sir ivan was one of britain's most experienced negotiators, he was a key member of david cameron's team when the former prime minister tried to get agreement on a new relationship with the eu before the referendum. and some who've worked with sir ivan believe his departure is a real loss to the government. the only way we're going to deliver a successful, workable brexit is precisely with the expertise of people like ivan rogers, who's now been forced to the margins, forced to the side lines, because of the angry zeal of brexiteers who just won't accept anyone who says anything different

to what they so happen to believe in. but leading brexit campaigners are delighted he's gone. sir ivan is part of the establishment that, frankly, haven't accepted the referendum result and are hoping that, frankly, it will never happen. i'm sorry to say, but the foreign office is stuffed full of these people, from top to bottom. for decades, they've been taking britain in completely the wrong direction, and i hope sir ivan‘s departure is followed by many, many more. in her new year's message, the prime minister stressed her commitment to getting a brexit deal that works for everyone. ..for we have made a momentous decision and set ourselves on a new direction. whoever takes over as the uk representative to the eu will play a critical role. it's important that we have someone in thejob, as sir ivan was doing, and no doubt his successor will do as well, who will report back to the british government and, through the government

to parliament, about what the other member states are saying and thinking. because in a negotiation it really pays to know where the other side is coming from. theresa may has said she'll trigger article 50 by the end of march, and the official line is that sir ivan rogers has decided to leave now so a new appointment can be made before the start of those formal negotiations for britain's departure from the eu. studio: our europe correspondent damian grammaticas says the resignation has come as a shock to diplomats in brusels. —— brussels. come as a shock to diplomats in brusels. -- brussels. he is the person who has been here for three

yea rs, person who has been here for three years, he's the person who handled all the david cameron's negotiation effo rts all the david cameron's negotiation efforts with the, he has been intimately involved in sitting across the table, from the other 27 countries, from the european union diplomats themselves, trying to negotiate the best deal for the uk. yes, a surprise, and a big task now, for the yes, a surprise, and a big task now, forthe uk, to yes, a surprise, and a big task now, for the uk, to find a replacement in very few weeks for what is clearly now going to be a position on which there will be enormous scrutiny. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages. our guests joining me is pippa crerar, political correspondent from the london evening standard and charlie wells, reporter from the wall street journal. the independent police complaints commission says a firearm was discovered in a car being driven by a man shot dead by police last night.

in a statement, the ipcc says the weapon didn't appear to be a police—issue firearm. yaser yacub was driving off the m62 on a slip road near huddersfield, when a number of unmarked police cars surrounded his vehicle, in what west yorkshire police say was a pre—planned operation. danny savage reports. voiceover: the day after the shooting, and the cars involved remain exactly where they stopped last night. the two dark—coloured vehicles and the silver mercedes are unmarked police cars. the two white cars are understood to be the target of the operation. as they boxed in the cars and stopped, armed officers were quickly out of their vehicles, and shots were fired. bulletholes can be seen in the windscreen of a white audi. the keys of the vehicles have today been left on the bonnet of that car. forensics officers have been examining the scene in detail. what was the exact sequence of events which led to a man being shot dead here? he was yassar yaqub,

a father from huddersfield. eight years go, he was cleared of trying to shoot dead two people. one friend on facebook wrote, "you were no angel but did not deserve this." the incident happened just outside huddersfield as the cars came off the m62 atjunction 2a, at around six o'clock they drove onto this slip road, but were hemmed in by police and brought to a stop. shortly after that, shots were fired, and yaser yacub was killed. three people were arrested at the scene. at the same time in bradford, another vehicle was stopped as part of the same operation and two were arrested. as the busy motorwayjunction was closed down last night, many people were caught up in the chaos. there were these rapid—response vehicles that kept pulling up, big, large vehicles, then a couple of ambulances turned up. as soon as the ambulance pulled up, some of the policemen ran up and told the ambulance they had to get down as quickly as possible to where the incident took place. it looked like somebody needed

urgent medical help. at yassar yaqub's family home, armed police arrived this afternoon making inquiries. friends and relatives who were visiting soon left. the operation related to information received about a criminal possession of a firearm, and i've been fully updated by the chief constable. the incident is not terrorism—related. the independent police complaints commission is now overseeing the investigation. among the questions they'll be asking are, did mr yaqub pose an imminent threat to life, what was he doing when he was shot, and has any weapon been recovered? danny savage, bbc news, huddersfield. studio: kurdish militants say a british man has been killed fighting with them against so—called islamic state in syria. they've told the bbc that ryan lock, who was 20 and from west sussex, died during an assault on the is stronghold of raqqa. at

least two other britons are known to have died while fighting against is in syria. our correspondent duncan kennedy reports. voiceover: ryan lock went to join kurdish forces fighting so—called islamic state in syria last summer. but a kurdish military group, the ypg, now say he was killed four days before christmas during a battle with is. there's been no official confirmation of the death, but in a statement from the family home here in chichester, ryan lock‘s brotherjohn said that ryan was a very caring and loving boy, who would do anything to help anyone. he had a heart of gold, he said. ryan's family were given the news by kurdish activists, who say the family want the ypg want to press for the return of ryan's body. the ypg will be doing absolutely everything they can to facilitate the return of the body to the uk. and would urge other parties such as the british government and the kurdistan regional government to please support the family in every sort of way they can in facilitating the return of ryan locke's body to the uk. in a statement, ryan lock‘s former school near portsmouth said, "we are very sorry and saddened

to hear the news about ryan lock. "he was a well—liked person during his time at the school, our thoughts go out to his friends and family at this time." ryan lock is one of several british nationals to fight and die for the kurds. most had no military training, but wanted to go after seeing pictures of the violence caused by islamic state. this man was a former royal marine from south yorkshire. in 2015, he became the first briton to die fighting for the kurds. his parents say they're proud british fighters are helping the kurdish people. my son asked me in a phone call, "when are the british coming?" and i said, "they aren't". but as i've seen with volunteers,

they are going over. and britain is being represented. even if it's not being admitted by the government. we are trying to help the kurds and fight isis in the best way a lot of young people can. so i'm very proud of them. ryan lock told friends he believed in the kurdish cause, but that commitment, it seems, has now brought tragedy to another british family. with me is macer gifford, anti—isis campaigner. who has been to syria as a foreign fighter with the ypg so tell us why you went? the images of barney being destroyed, and all

of barney being destroyed, and all of these places, and it really moved me and made me want to go out and join the fight myself. —— kobane. under the 2000 terrorism act, being involved in activities for the white pg is against the law. the white pg is not a terrorist group, it is supported by britain. they work very closely with them on the ground. —— ypg. jets bomb in support of them, trouble is, we are not giving any humanitarian support, not giving any political support, they get the ypg on the news and they work with what isa on the news and they work with what is a very worthy cause. did you have any military experience before you went out to the war zone? no, i initially joined the went out to the war zone? no, i initiallyjoined the territorial army, by matter of months, this was something that, i was throwing myself in the deep end, however, this is a politicalfight, this is a war against fascism, against people

who want to roll back the clock and destroy all of the middle east. for me, driven by my beliefs, and my beliefs in humanism. you were prepared to die for this? beliefs in humanism. you were prepared to die for this7m necessary , prepared to die for this7m necessary, but i did not go there just to five, i went there to defend. it was the people, in that town, they are the ones that are suffering. —— just to fight. town, they are the ones that are suffering. -- just to fight. to be clear, the ypg is not a prescribed organisation like the pkk and other kurdish forces, some of its activities would come under terrorism legislation in this country, you are clear about that.|j disagree... it is a fact. they are a secular group, they are not terrorists, terrorists bomb and hurt civilians, these people have never done that, they

are treated as liberated by surname muslims, yazidi christians, they are pa rt muslims, yazidi christians, they are part of the sdf, which is a major pa rt part of the sdf, which is a major part of the sdf, which is a major part of the sdf, which is a major part of the american strategy to get rid of isis, and they believe in secular values. —— sunni ‘s. they wa nt secular values. —— sunni ‘s. they want a secular and democratic syria, and the young men to go out there and the young men to go out there andjoin and the young men to go out there and join them should be treated as heroes, in my point of view. thank you for coming in. my pleasure. a british soldier who died in iraq yesterday has been named. lance corporal scott hetherington, who was 22 and serving with the 2nd battalion, duke of lancaster's regiment, had only recently become a father of a baby girl. its believed he died in an accidental shooting. an investigation is under way. top stories: britain's top diplomat to the eu, sir ivan rogers has resigned. he'd been expected to play a key role in brexit talks. a gun has been found in the car of the man shot dead by police

during a ‘pre—planned' operation, near the m62 in huddersfield. there have been more arrests in turkey after the new year's eve nightclub shooting, but the suspected gunman is still on the run. ta ke take a break, get some sport from the bbc sport centre. arsenal are looking to go third in the premier league with victory over bournemouth, at the vitality stadium tonight, but they fell behind after just 16 minutes, charlie daniels was left unmarked and cut inside to fire bournemouth in front. paul starke for the gunners, arsenal conceded a penalty, when granit xhaka tripped fraser in the area, and callum wilson scored from the spot, putting the home side to nil up. swansea city are taking crystal palace, while swansea city's new manager paul clement is not in the dugout, he is in the stands, the score is 0-0. -- he is in the stands, the score is

0—0. —— callum wilson scored from the spot, putting the home side 2—0 up. and 0—0 between stoke city and watford. sir andy murray has extended his winning streak to 25 matches on the atp tour as he beat jeremy chardy in straight sets at the qatar open. it was murray's first competitive match since becoming a knight in the new year's honours list. ben croucher watched the action. voiceover: sign writers might have a few extra letters to sign at the races wheeze on but for andy murray, very little has changed, he turns up and wins, he would barely have had a first set quite so simple as the one set up in doha, jeremy chardy used to be in the top 30, but not no longer. if andy murray was in a hurry, he was halted in the second set, jeremy chardy winning enough points to register a game on the scoreboard, he won a few more two, but andy murray matched in every shot of the way, as the new night upped his in intensity, jeremy

chardy refused to all over, even if with some unorthodox methods they forced a tie—break. it was a little harder than usual but as usual, andy murray eventually prevailed. 6—0, 7-6, murray eventually prevailed. 6—0, 7—6, new year, new name, same old andy murray, or, sirandy. studio: former super league and world club champions bradford bulls have been liquidated after the club's administrator rejected a bid to save them. the bulls entered administration. for a third time in five years in november. they won four super league titles, before being relegated to the championship in 2014. despite the liquidation, the bbc understands that a new incarnation of the club will be in the championship this season, but with a 12—point deduction. eddie jones says dylan hartley will captain england during the six nations as long as he proves his fitness, he is curry serving a six—week ban for striking but we'll be back in time for england's opening game against france next

month. he is doing everything right to be captain at the moment, he has come, knee has worked hard, the prerequisite to get into the side is to be very fit, not playing games. —— not playing games means he has got to undergo an unbelievably stringent fitness programme over the next five or six weeks. he's doing that and so he's clearly putting himself in best position to compete for his country. gb taekwondo say they "had reservations" for his country. gb taekwondo say they " had reservations" about for his country. gb taekwondo say they "had reservations" about double olympic champion jade jones taking pa rt olympic champion jade jones taking part in the channel 4 programme the jump. jones receives funding from uk sport and is due to take part in the world championships later this year. gb taekwondo says it has has held "exte nsive" gb taekwondo says it has has held "extensive" talks with jones gb taekwondo says it has has held "extensive" talks withjones about the risks involved. gymnast louis smith and paralympic cyclist and athlete kadeena cox are also taking pa rt athlete kadeena cox are also taking part in the series which involves competitors learning to ski jump. last year several participants were badly injured. bournemouth two,

arsenal nil, and 0—0 in the other games. you can follow all of the action on five live full. there have been further arrests after the new year's eve terror attack in turkey, but the gunman who killed thirty nine people is still on the run. turkish police have detained more than a dozen people so far. our turkey correspondent mark lowen has been into the club where the massacre took place. voiceover: three days ago, this place was full ofjoy, of life, of celebration. today, reina nightclub is a crime scene, scarred by terror. we were the first british broadcasters allowed in, briefly. a rare glimpse of where 39 people were killed on new year's eve. imagine the horror as 180 bullets were sprayed here, people jumping into the freezing bosporus to escape. the owners of reina say they will reopen the nightclub. it's a sign of the defiant mood here.

yes, people are sombre, yes, they're fearful, but turks have lived with the terror threat for decades, albeit on a smaller scale, and they're determined not to let it defeat them. watch the right—hand side of this footage from the attack. a manjumps over a low fence outside the nightclub to avoid the bullets. then the gunman runs up to the door, shooting his way into reina. that man on the right of the video was the nightclub manager, who had a miraculous escape. translation: i felt bullets explode next to me, i threw myself over the fence. the gunman shot from behind, the bullets went centimetres over my head. when i fell, he must have thought he had hit me, so he went inside, and i heard the terrible sounds. new pictures have been released of the suspect, who is still on the run. so—called islamic state called him their brave soldier. turkish authorities have given no information about him. overnight, an area of istanbul was raided. reports say the gunman

travelled from there to the nightclub for the attack, but no arrests were made. there have, though, been others detained, including two foreigners at istanbul airport. it's not clear what link, if any, they're thought to have had with the attack. those tired of terror went to the scene of the massacre today, a quiet commemoration. tributes were laid and thoughts gathered about how their country can rebuild and how the next generation can regain a sense of safety. i don't want to cry any more while i am watching the news, you know? it makes me really sad. and i don't want my daughter to grow up in this kind of environment, you know? with this news in the background and everything. i want her to be happy. and so a nervous wait to see if those who protect this country are really closing in on the man who brought horror to new year's eve. mark lowen, bbc news, istanbul. studio: the unite union has

called a 48—hour strike among british airways cabin crew, which is due to start next tuesday. a previous walkout planned for christmas day and boxing day was called off after talks. the dispute is over pay for mixed fleets. —— the dispute is over pay for mixed fleets operating in europe. british airways has released a statement saying it's disappointed that unite has chosen to target customers. ba says it plans to ensure all its customers can travel to their destinations. mixed fleet unite represents only 15% of its cabin crew. adding, it will publish more details for customers on friday once it has finalised its contingency plans. activity in the uk's manufacturing sector hit a two—and—a—half—year high,

according to a survey of purchasing managers last month. it found that a weaker pound has helped to boost orders from overseas, but that cost pressures faced by firms remained high. four chelsea football fans have been handed suspended prison sentences in france, after a racist incident before a champions league match in 2015. the men were charged after video footage emerged of them pushing a black man off a metro train in paris. our correspondent lucy williamson is in paris following the story. this is something that happened in february, 2015, a group of chelsea fa ns were february, 2015, a group of chelsea fans were on their way to a match between chelsea and the local club here, paris saint—germain, one of the local passengers caught on his phone footage of some of the chelsea fa ns phone footage of some of the chelsea fans pushing a black frenchman, suleiman sula, of the train, reportedly pushing him off the train was singing racist chance, and the four men who were being tried today,

only two in court, they were charged with aggravated violence, violence that had a racist element to it, and they were found guilty and they were given suspended sentences, those that were in court, slightly shorter sentences, eight months, those that we re sentences, eight months, those that were tried in a censure were given suspended sentences of one week each. -- one year each. studio: two months after elections, the us congress is back in session today, and for the first time in a decade, the incoming republican president will be able to rely on a republican majority in both the house of representatives and the senate. let's speak to our correspondent in washington, jane o'brien. republican—led congress, for the first time in ten years, and an incoming republican president, publicly fighting on twitter, donald trump, rebuked members of his own party for trying to weaken a

watchdog office that looks after their conduct in congress, and judges their ethics. when they met in secret last night to try to wea ken in secret last night to try to weaken the powers of the office, he tweeted, saying, don't do this, you have far more important things to worry about like overhauling the tax code and repealing obamacare. we have never seen anything like it and it begs the question, how will he work with republicans who did not support him during the election and how well they work with him. the one thing they do agree on is the repeal of obamacare, thing they do agree on is the repeal of obamaca re, they thing they do agree on is the repeal of obamacare, they have wasted no time getting on with that, already setting in motion procedures that will enable them to repeal it on paper but the big question is what will it be replaced with? they will also need democratic support if they wa nt to also need democratic support if they want to introduce new health care legislation. sales of vinyl records are at their highest for 25 years, boosted by a new generation of record collectors

who buy the albums but may not even play them. most people these days listen to music via streaming sites such as spotify. but increasingly they're also buying records in their physical format, as collectors' items. david sillito has more. music: whole lotta love by led zeppelin. led zep ii, classic album. why is this better on vinyl? well, it was made to be on vinyl, the actual format of the record, the gatefold sleeve, the artwork. so it was made for vinyl, never made to be a cd, certainly never made to be a download. for phil barton of sister ray records, there is no debate, musicjust sounds better when it comes on a 12 inch disk. but as a business, it's been tough. however, things have begun to change. listen, ten years ago, i would have given you the keys the shop and said, look, i can't make any money out of this. i didn't realise this stuff was still going to be hanging around. david bowie was the biggest seller last year. prince was also in the top ten, along with amy winehouse, fleetwood mac and the beatles. a

recent survey has found that nearly half, 48%, were never played. of course it is worth putting this into context, imagine that each of these records represents 1 context, imagine that each of these records represents1 million sales, if you add in streaming, digital download, cds, about 123 million albums were sold last year. the number of vinyl album sold last year... 3 million. but both are dwarfed by the real music titan, streaming. streaming is a totally different beast, 45 billion streams, at the other end of the spectrum, not really recorded music in the physical format as we know it. not really recorded music in the physical format as we know itm not really recorded music in the physical format as we know it. it is felt that streaming can help younger listeners to eventually try the hard stuff... ! listeners to eventually try the hard stuff. . .! what a lot of people at university by vinyl. do they? yes, yes we do. it has got an inner

sleeve. for some, this was an entirely new experience. it is massive! look at it! what is that... ? massive! look at it! what is that. . . ? it's like massive! look at it! what is that...? it's like a pizza! and it goes on the thing that goes round. the circle... you really have never touched or handled this ever before? never, never. even drake, the world's most streamed artist has issued his back catalogue on vinyl, after discovering they were being bootlegged. but for most fans of justin bieber and other kings of streaming, this way of listening is finished. we will see gales or severe gales for a time across the far north—east, week weather front

steadily drifting out of scotland, across northern ireland, north wales, the midlands and the south—east corner, to the south and north of that, clear skies, temperatures lowering, a future of the spots, for a touch of light frost, the talking point will be where the front is sitting first thing tomorrow morning, struggling across northern ireland, into the south—east corner. not really producing much in the way of rain, outbreaks of light drizzly rain as it sinks south and west, behind it, glorious blue sky and sunshine to come through. still breezy in the north—east, the risk of a few showers, top temperatures through wednesday afternoon look likely to sit at around 49 degrees, clear skies by daily to a cold and frosty night and skies by daily to a cold and frosty nightand a skies by daily to a cold and frosty night and a frosty start to thursday morning, we will be waking up to things like this yet again. hello — this is bbc news. the uk's ambassador to the eu, sir ivan rogers, has abruptly resigned, with formal brexit

negotiations due to begin in less than three months. the labour party says it's "deeply worrying," but some have welcomed the news. a gun has been found in the car of a man connected with a fatal shooting on the 62 in huddersfield. police continue to investigate. there have been more arrests in turkey after the new year's eve nightclub shooting, but the gunman who killed 39 people, is still on the run. a british man is said to be killed in syria fighting with kurdish forces against islamic state militants. ryan locke had told his family he was going to turkey on holiday. a 48—hour strike among cabin crew at british airways over pay, is to be held next week. after donald trump question their priorities, republicans in the us congress has withdrawn a controversial initiative to strip an independent ethics committee of its

powers. now on bbc news — hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. there is a select club fiction writers whose next book is eagerly anticipated by legions of fans around the world, as my guest today is in that club and has been for more than two decades. british cornwell can lay claim to inventing the whole genre of crime scene forensic detective fiction. her investigator has featured in two dozen novels and inspired a host of imitators. the author herself talks of her determination to confront and control her fears. do her books tell us control her fears. do her books tell us what she's frightened of. and to hardtalk. in same thing -- i

have heard that we do the same thing autopsy. chuckles this will not be an autopsy. when did you first realise that you had a gift for telling stories with an edge of darkness to them? truth is i realised it at a young age because i was always making up stories. the kids love to hear my stories. but i realised early on i could tell stories in a suspenseful, frightful way. i was once holding fort in a

va ca nt lot way. i was once holding fort in a vacant lot near my house, it was in north carolina, where i grew up. i scared these little boys so badly they burst into tears and went racing home and i felt awful. they burst into tears and went racing home and ifelt awful. i thought, oh my goodness, i have the ability to make little boys cry. i should have acted on that and made them cry more but i felt bad about it. i knew i could scare people at a young age. very interesting. you said you felt awful. i don't say you felt empowered. because it does give you a certain power. it didn't stop me. i was constantly writing stories. it would get pinned up on the board when i was on the fourth grade, just a little kid. the most common phrase in any of my stories was "all of a sudden. " common phrase in any of my stories was "all of a sudden. you know, because i,

everything was spooky and scary and it's someone walking under a street light in the shadows, and the moon and clouds going by, then i had to put a witch on a broom and draw a picture, so it was all spooky. my favourite holiday was hallowe'en. i planned for it for months, loved it. you are painting this picture of you at nine or ten, i know by nine or ten your own life had had a lot of fear and sadness and upset in it, because your dad left home when you were very small child. i know your mum had mental issues, and had a break down when you were still a child, was there a sense in which you were trying to impose control on your life, find way of dealing with things by writing stories, where you were the author of everything? you know, when i was little, i have to say if i had not, did not have artistic and some means to lift myself out of what was all round me, and it is not that it would be necessarily as bad to someone else as it was to me, but i am very sensitive. i don't know what it was,

but i took things really hard, and my father leaving when i was five, and i adored him, and on christmas morning of all things, i was — i still remember it as if it was yesterday really, and a lot of other things, and my mother, several times when she had deep depression, she was hospitalised, and we went into foster care, and that was really bad, and i wasn't allowed to leave the house and things like that. so i developed this ability to transport myself, it is no accident that star trek was my favourite show on the rare occasion i was allowed to watch it. i wanted to beam myself somewhere else and creativity gave me a chance do that. i think you are right, i think it has been tainted by fear and horror and going into those dark places, because i think i felt if i could go into them, maybe i wouldn't be afraid of them any more. what is amazing, you have not only gone into them but you have stayed in them, to a certain extent. i guess, without trying to be a sort of pop psychologist, psychiatrist, you may have written to a certain extent to control and confront demons, but you have stayed doing it. some people might have thought you conquered the demon,

you had great success with the books, you could have moved on, but you keep writing them. it is like when mary shelley created frankenstein, she didn't know that monster was going to live with her for eternity, right? so we create something that might actually be a means to you dealing or coping with your own psyche, and it kind of controls your life after that, but in my case i am happy it does. it is a good thing, it is better than what i came out of, which is a life with no control. this is the latest book, chaos, ithink it is the 24th. yes. of your kay scarpetta series. that is right. would it be right to see all of them as a form of therapy? you could say that. hopefully they don't read like therapy and they don't read like some neurotic drivel, which my early ones did, trust me, the ones that didn't get published. i work through a lot of things in this, and i have kay scarpetta do the same. her biggest underlying motivation is that she became an expert at death at a young age because she watched her father dying. i became an expert at loss and the loss caused me to fear death. if you are little and you feel

abandoned and alone and you are not sure who is taking care of you, you worry you won't survive, and i am lucky i did. you know, i really, really am. so i return to my own crime scene through a very poetic way of dealing with the life of kay scarpetta and the cases she works. she deals with the loss of her father by always being this expert in death, but no matter how much she picks it apart and puts it it back together again, he will never be alive again and neither will any of her patients. how do you do that as human being? that is what is fun about these books, and interesting for me. how does she go on, and how do any of us, and so it is not just about a thriller, it is about much bigger subjects than that. well, in a sense, and i said it at the beginning, you were the inventor of a genre which introduced us to the skills of the forensic investigator, interpreting crime scenes, using science, using research, and it seems to me there is linked there also with your, your beginnings and your professional life as a journalist, which was you going out finding

stories and researchling them, and also your obsession almost with the fine detail. it seems you really really want to dig. i am a bit of a weirdo that way. it is true, when i started out at the charlotte observer, within no time when they put me into the police beat, it happened within six months of my being hired as general assignment, and that was after i did the tv magazine and sent it to hell in a hand basket. i was the worst tv updater they have ever had in the history of newspaper. when i got into the police beat, i used wear a necklace that had a pendant with nothing on it. i felt like when i went off to college in life, i didn't know anything about anything, i had never written a term paper.

shakespeare meant going to see the movie when i was in high school, i didn't know crap about life, and so when i got intojournalism, everything was a brand—new experience to me. so i would take a story, that had been written 20 times, and i would say look at it, as if no—one had ever told it before, and next thing you know you are winning awards, because you are telling something that is right in front of everyone, but they don't see it when they walk past, and it is a great story. so that is just been my method, it is what i still do. millions of people love these books, and, you know, there are, i guess, other writers too in the same sort of genre who write great detective fictions which sells by the million. there are other people who frankly aren't interested in crime fiction because of its predictability. i mean the bottom line is, you know, when you write, read a crime thriller that there is going to be resolution, i mean, you know you have written two dozen, so we suspect you are not going to kill off kay scarpetta, she is going to come out on top. she may fire me some day, i worry about it all the time. do you see that point, that, you know, for anybody who doesn't want to enter a story

sort of knowing what the outcome is, there is a problem with a lot of crime fiction. well, you know, i think especially if you are talking about the more traditional, where it is conventional and there are certain tricks to the trade, i remember the first mystery convention, one of the only ones i went to in the early days, and they were talking about red herrings and buried clues, and i went what? this is coming out of the context of watching autopsies and crime scenes, a red herring is probably some weird food. i didn't know what they were talking about. and from the beginning, i have always gone away from the conventions of the genre, and you don't know necessarily. in chaos you probably have a pretty good idea who might behind a lot of this, but you don't know what is going on because it is more like real life. have you ever written a story where there is no resolution, where the perpetrator walks away from the scene, scot—free? yes, but he has got caught later. that is the point. i have had my fourth book,

the person didn't get caught. you don't do that. but i went why not? it happens in real life. we will get him later. he didn't get caught for a long time. a really long time. one person we thought was caught isn't, so that is the way it works. that is life. you mean when you say he got caught eventually in a different book? a different book. she finally got, kay scarpetta did him in, but it took a while. the other temptation a lot of readers have is to try to figure out how much of kay scarpetta, who so many people feel they know so well, is actually patricia cornwell. well, there are many things about our set are similar, in term of our dna you might say. i think like she does, i solve cases the way she does, i have the same sensibilities. i would like to think i am the type of humanitarian, have the same values she does. beyond that there are huge differences. i am not italian, i am not a fallen catholic, i am more of a fallen everything else.

i am not that smart, i am not educated the way she was, i couldn't really do an autopsy. i wouldn't try, it would be wrong. i don't really collect evidence at crime scenes, but i know how, know how to describe it, so there many differences. and the other thing is, she is, she is probably a lot, she has a much thicker skin, and she is much more disciplined than i would be. i am volatile. i am an artist, i get moods, she can handle it. she is much more disciplined. i would be a terrible kay scarpetta. she wouldn't make a very good patricia cornwell. that is the truth. she's seen a lot of the results of graphic violence. and much of it directed at young women. not all of it but much of it. some of it is fetishised, a lot of it is sexual. how close to the edge of taste, i suppose, but also questions about voyeurism and titillation even... how close to the edge of those issues do you feel you get? it's funny you would say that. i am much more mindful of that edge than a lot of people would know. you want to get up close to it

but you don't want to cross it. the problem is knowing what that means, where is the edge and what does crossing it mean? and for my case, it's where it becomes violently in a way that's no longer safe. in other words, if you're showing what the killer is doing as opposed to showing what scarpetta imagines, how she cleans up after the fact and solves things, the first part of that is a lot more dangerous than the latter part. you're safe when you're with her. so when i went to the third person point of view and started, in some books, getting into the mind of the killer, i did that for a few books and in my opinion i started getting over that line and i didn't like the way it felt. that's one of the reasons i stopped doing it. i should say, i thought you stopped doing that, writing in the third person rather than the i form, reading the book as though you were kay, i thought you stopped doing that because the audience didn't seem

to like it very much? they didn't like it. they didn't like it at all, but then i didn't like it either. and now i understand why they didn't like it, because... maybe you shouldn't care that they didn't like it. as an artist, you surely have to write from within rather than write simply what you think your audience wants? i don't write what i think they want but i do care what they don't want especially. if something is disturbing and upsetting to my fans, like when i killed off betson wesley, it's like the little boys crying in the parking lot, i made the little boys cry in the parking lot, dammit, you know? and my fans were heartbroken, outraged, upset and... and when you talk about your fans, i'm just thinking to myself, you sound a bit like... readers, whatever you want to call them. whatever, but you sound a bit like a sort of franchise and i just think, when we think about the biggest selling thriller writers... i'm turning around squaring off at you now! notice my body language has changed anyway. well, that's good, but think about james patterson and some of the others. they sell by the gazillion, but it's a bit industrial, you know? they have teams of writers, patterson, overseas,

and he presents them with sort of plot ideas and then they go and write it in the style of patterson and it all becomes a little industrialised. you getting close to that? never. scarpetta is not going to let me share that writing with anybody. i wish i could sometimes, but she only talks to me. and she doesn't always talk to me. if i thought i could hire a team of people and produce three or four of these every year that the readers would love, i would do it. i would make more money, probably, than i do now. but i can't do that. these come from someplace inside of me. i give them everything i've got while i'm doing it. i do care what the readers think. they spend their good money on these books and i wouldn't be here today if it wasn't them. does it take it out of you? yes, yes. because we've talked about the dark places and there is darkness in the books. you say this is personal and your writing from your heart and yourself. and yet what is miraculous about what you do is pretty much every year there is a new one. i think you've been writing these books for pretty much 25 years and sure enough there are scarpettas.

so you churn them out. i try to. i try to do one a year. occasionally i might do something else instead, like when i did jack the ripper, which the new one of those is coming out... so things like that, but... the books themselves, what they take out of me is, it's exhausting. it takes of all my focus and it hangs over my head the whole time i'm doing it. it's really hard. if the research that has taken the most out of me. when i first started doing all this, you really don't know what it's going to do to you until it's already happened, and then it's too late. there's no getting out of it and no going back. and i changed my life in a way that i may well have given myself a disease. i won't get over this! what do you mean, a disease? because i have, like, post—traumatic stress type stuff. i have images and things that are like malware, i can't get them out of my head. i've seen things i don't show my readers. i've heard things i don't ever tell my readers. and when those scenes visit me, when i least expect, like when i'm lying in bed just trying to relax a bit and then

ijust get up and i have to just leave the room. because they are too hard. and if i didn't write about it, that's at least something i can do with this really morbid a rather horrible database that i have in my head. to be honest with you, it's been hard. no, i haven't heard you talk quite like that before. it actually brings me back to where we started, with stuff that is in you that goes all the way back to childhood. yeah. including come and i have to ask you about this because ijust wonder yeah. including, and i have to ask you about this because ijust wonder if it's still there in you, really close to the surface... you were abused as a child. i think that the two things i remember most is that i won't get over and i probably worry about it all the time, have the feeling of being existential, having no power, that nobody cares, you're invisible, you're nothing, you're not going

to amount to anything. there's a part of me that will always feel like somehow it's going to turn out that way again. i will live running with that chasing me, that i will be that helpless child. once again. and that's what keeps me going. and you don't get over these things. sometimes, i have so immersed myself in the traumas and the tragedies of other people because i sort of desperately need to try to heal other people because i know what it feels like to have nobody who can do that for you. and then when somebody finally does, and i was given that gift with people like ruth graham, who make me feel like, wow, if that lady paid attention to me when i'm just this is nobody in this little town, maybe there's something special. it's really about healing yourself, isn't it? it's about healing myself and one of the ways we heal ourselves is to heal others. in fact i don't know of any other weight to heal yourself then to do that for other people. what i hear in your voice is actually an insecurity in a way that is release of rising

for a woman who is one of the bestselling authors in the world, you know, who travels with an entourage, who has come up what all of us from the outside would regard as a fantastic life and so much that's good. and yet you still feel insecure? oh, i'll never change. i'm still that scared little girl. i'm still that scared little girl afraid to open the closet door or look under the bed, and by god i'm going to because i can't stand being afraid of anything. and that's what people don't understand. they think i'm some superhero like lucy in these books. i'm not. i learned all these things to do them but i'm really at heartjust a little girl with a crayon writing poetry and making her own little books and selling them together and drawing pictures. and yet i've thrown myself into a house of horrors, to write something that i felt would matter and would change things and would empower people and take a character to do what i wish i could do.

i wish i could kick butt the way she does. i'm glad you talk about lucy because i did want to talk about her, but one particular aspect of her in particular, which is, you introduce this character, she is the niece of scarpetta and she is a crucial character, and she's gay. yeah. and you are gay and i don't know whether you actually wanted to come out, but you did come out and it was quite a completed story because you had a love affair and it got into the media and it was all quite messy. oh, i tended to make mistakes in really big ways, let's just put it that way! but you have talked about ruth graham, who was a great mentor to you and she was obviously the wife of billy graham, the pastor, the evangelist, an internationally known figure who was a christian conservative. in some ways, you've been quite conservative in your life and yet you have made a point now of speaking out on gay marriage and other issues concerning the gay community. have you left behind your conservatism? i was never conservative. i mean, as a kid i was conservative but only because i grew up...

the first seven years in miami and then north carolina, a place i wouldn't go right now, hello, by the way... but anyway, in this little town where billy graham lives up on the top of the mountain, everything was evangelist christian stuff, nobody had liquor in the town that they admitted to, nobody was gay, that they admitted to... so when you first realised you were gay... that was really bad. were you battling with yourself? 0h! listen, i'd never even heard of that when i was growing up. there were spinsters and roommates. i'd never heard of gay people. that you were drunk or a sinner or a paedophile, a child molester... but the gay stuff was not something that was common in the fabric of my little sheltered world. and never would i have thought that that would be what i would grow up to be. i mean, i didn't make the choice. why would i want to do that and get criticised and pigs on? why would i want to do that and get criticised and picked on? and you know something people don't know? and i'll tell you and i've never said this in public before... the truth of the matter is, when i got outed,

which was when vanity fair did this really horrible story and there were things everywhere because some people just decided to do that because they were, it was just really to be cruel... when i knew this was all coming out and this was, like, in the mid—90s and i was devastated and frightened and i had never had my privacy exposed like this and i knew what this was going to mean to people, i picked up the phone, i called ruth graham and i said, ruth, can i come and see you? because there's something i have to tell you and i'm going to do it in person. she said "sure, honey, come on up". so i got on my plane or my helicopter, i don't know what it was, but i flew to the mountains in north carolina, i went up to her house, i sat down and i said, "you need to know that i'm gay and the reason i'm telling you is that you're going to hear about it anyway". so here's what she did. she said, "oh, honey, i've no news since you were that big. i know that's not true about you". and the fact of the matter is, she was always kind and loving when stacey and i, stacey met her before ruth died,

and she was always welcoming. stacey is your partner. yes. but ruth, she did notjudge me, she never brought it up, but even when vanity fair asked her about it, she's at the same thing, "i've known her since that..." she wouldn't go into it, she wouldn't accept it, in a way? just denial. yes. did that hurt you? it hurt me terribly. it still hurts me. because as much as i sing her praises and love her and i know that she was kind and she would never have like kicked us out of the house or done anything like that, i don't think she would have voted in our favour, based on that she just couldn't deal with it. it was too... it was too much against everything that she'd ever been taught and what she was surrounded by, what she lived with. it didn't compute to her. because that story is quite a few years old now, we're talking the 1990s. yes. but the last time i saw her was 2006 and i was up in the mountains, stacey was there, we were in the bedroom talking and she couldn't have been kinder. but it's not something we could ever discuss. you have vanquished a lot of demons.

but i'm getting the impression there are still some inside you? oh, how can you not have demons in this life? there's so much to deal with, so much to overcome. and then just when you overcome some things, you start getting older and have to deal with everything else. you know, so life is a struggle and it's what we make of it. and as much as i'm so grateful to have the success that i have, i also want to feel like have made the world a better place and that i leave it a better place and that i'm honest while i'm here, even if it's hard, which is one of the reasons i want to do your show, because i like somebody who asks me the hard questions. we should all be giving hard answers too. hard answers to. this question of fear that sort of runs through the interview from the get go, from the beginning of your life, are you still fearful today? of course. i'm fearful of failure, i'm fearful of death, you know? and loss and violence. i know way too much about everything bad that can happen to everybody. i know the liabilities of all things because i've seen so much.

but the thing is, i get to produce something beautiful out of it. the art is fun and if i entertain people then i've taken something and actually created something really good out of something that maybe didn't start out so hot. patricia cornwell, that is a great place to end. thank you so much for being on hardtalk. thank you very much. it was great to talk to you. thank you. it's early days into the new year but we haven't seen anything challenging weather—wise. after a chilly start we had beautiful spells of sunshine down to the south—west, a glorious afternoon over much of cornwall. that was the exception to

the rule, most had cloud and we finished our day across the south of —— across the far north—east with lots of wind. but this storm pushes southwards through the night and it won't produce much in the way of rain. this is where the cloud city, temperatures holding above freezing, maybe a touch on the chilly side further north and a of light frost. that's where the front will continue to push south and west over wednesday. it will bring cloud, some like drizzly rain first thing in the morning, so not a cold start over much of wales, stretching into the midlands, down towards the south—east. to the north of that the cloud is already broken, a beautiful morning open northern england and scotland. it will stay like that most of the day. despite the disappointing start over northern ireland, and improving picture as we go into the afternoon. still windy in the north—east. as we go through

the day, the sunshine creeps to the southis the day, the sunshine creeps to the south is that front clears away. a better afternoon for north wales, in central and southern parts of england and northern ireland. doctor ridges in the afternoon, likely to be between three —— top temperatures in the afternoon, likely to be between three to 9 degrees. temperatures will fall away sharply overnight. low enough to allow for some frost in towns and cities. imrul parts temperatures will be as low as minus six degrees in some areas. a very cold start to thursday morning. hard frost very likely. maybe even some freezing fog, which is something to keep an eye on if you are out and about early on. but it could be a decent day on thursday, quite promising, good spells of sunshine, bit more of a breeze, bit more cloud to the west, not as cold as it has been, but in some places just not as cold as it has been, but in some placesjust a couple

not as cold as it has been, but in some places just a couple of degrees above freezing. all change on friday. wet and windy weather coming from the north—west. that will bring outbreaks of rain towards the south—west of the country, perhaps not arriving until daylight hours, but then things quite an down again as we head into the weekend. more from me throughout the evening. —— quieten down. welcome to outside source, day1 of the new congress in washington and already republicans have delivered a high profile u—turn, many wanted to change how members of congress are overseen, donald trump was not keen on that idea, he tweeted about it and now it is not happening, we will be live on capitol hill. he has also been exerting influence through twitter on some of the businesses in the us, told general motors to begin making more cars and had a similar message for ford, now ford has announced it is moving a major planned facility from mexico to michigan. this is sir ivan rogers, uk top diplomat at the european union, he has resigned weeks before

wrecks it negotiations are expected to begin, we will be live in westminster