away g ‘ away £80,000 in an hour. gamble away £80,000 in an hour. gambling charities, addiction charities, want the stakes to be lowered to about £2. now, obviously that would have implications for the treasury, and so there has been a bit of... sort of i think, that the treasury wanted to keep money but obviously be seen to do the right thing. you have the department of culture, media and sport saying they must do something about this. in a letter to the bishop of st albans, one doctor alan smith, the chancellor, philip hammond, has assured the bishop that they are going to do something about it, and they are going to look at it. it is four columns of a story that is the government rights to the bishop to say don't worry about it, we are looking at it. but they have to lower the stakes, because there is not a lot else you can do to control this. and have fewer of them on the high street. they target poorer areas. we have been running a campaign on the sunday people the

two years about this. it is essential you have fewer of them, the stakes are much lower, and stop targeting poorer and vulnerable people. let's go back to the sunday telegraph and the bottom of the page, tucked away, a story about the nhs terrifying older women who choose to have a child in later life. this has come from professor cathy warwick, the outgoing chief executive of the royal college of midwives and a midwife herself, saying health professionals have overstated the risks attached to age of older mothers... i think as you probably know, i think it is something like 35 or 36 and you are a geriatric as a mother. devastating. terribly upsetting for women. what she is saying is the sensible, if you are healthy, your risks are only a little bit greater

thanif risks are only a little bit greater than if you have a baby in your 20s but there are a lot more women having children in their 405, there are more children born to women over 40 than under 20 but nevertheless, the facts speak for themselves, rate5 the facts speak for themselves, rates of stillbirth and down's syndrome do increase with older pregnancies. my mother was over 40 and i'm still here. and perfectly normal as far as we can tell! let's finish on the story tucked inside the sunday express, nigel, a picture of david cameron with this shorts on at the corn free music festival but he's planning on going further afield? he's going to south dakota, to the wild west. a lovely story, he has an £800,000 publishing deal, he makes £125,000 an hourfor a has an £800,000 publishing deal, he makes £125,000 an hour for a speech, he's not really on this uppers but he's not really on this uppers but he's going to rapids city in south da kota he's going to rapids city in south dakota and he's going to give a talk for £5 a head and i hope they

thoroughly enjoy it. apparently the tickets are selling rather well. rapids city is a place where there's a civics centre and its organised by... it's thejonty bloom vukovic foundation speaker series. in 1994 mrs thatcher gave a speech in the town, it is close to the town of devon. they have heard colin powell and benazir bhutto. the place to be for £5, $11, and £2 30 if you are a student. the suggestion from the headline would be it is all going down the pan but he is esteemed company. i hope he puts some better clothes on! thanks very much, 10 and

nigel, great to have you with us again. coming up next it's time for meet the author. a story about storytelling, that myth and belief, about human curiosity and our weakness for a secret. marcel theroux's new novel the secret books is a kaleidoscopic tale of religion and politics that moves from czarist russia to the bell airport in paris, in india and eventually to the brink of the second world war and the holocaust. 0n second world war and the holocaust. on every page the same question teases and torments you, what's true and what is not. welcome. i'm not

sure if classification of novels is a very good idea or not but in the case of this very original story, i wa nt to case of this very original story, i want to hear how you would describe it as want to hear how you would describe itasa want to hear how you would describe it as a book. that say tuffey. for me it's an adventure story at the heart of it. i wanted it to have the energy and vigor of a classic adventure story. the book excels sprang out of my accession with another book which i brought along to show you, it's the unknown life ofjesus christ, published in 1894 in paris by a russian emigre called nicholas know the vetch. and i've a lwa ys nicholas know the vetch. and i've always been interested in the story ofjesus always been interested in the story of jesus and the always been interested in the story ofjesus and the gap in the gospel and when he begins his ministry in galilee, i always wondered what he was up to in those years. i came across. . . was up to in those years. i came across... this apocryphal tale that

he had been in india studying buddhism and it turns out it originates in this book written by notovitch which he claims to have discovered in a tibetan monastery and the how, why and where of that story was the seed. in a way we live in an age of conspiracy theories, this is one of the great conspiracy theories and it produced one of the most famous forgeries, the protocols of the elders of zion, used as an anti—semitic pamphlet essentially. the fascinating thing about notovitch is he is a russian in this pa rt notovitch is he is a russian in this part of the british empire where the great game is what is he doing there, he is surely up to no good, then he comes up with the gospel he found which sounds like something out of indiana jones which shows jesus was a buddhist and at first glance you think, wow, maybejesus was studying buddhism in a tibetan monastery, what a lovely idea but when you look at the stark

background and what was going on in the 18805 and 18905, which is a period that weirdly resembles ours, it was a very busy time for fake news, a very busy time for conspiracy theories. in many ways a book about stories, about important they are to us and how we work out what is true and what isn't, that ta kes you what is true and what isn't, that takes you straight to religious belief of cause and the experience of being jewish, which is a very strong strand in the book of course. it's a story about storytelling wrapped up in a piece of storytelling. that's why novel is a right form to tell notovitch's life because above all his life is about telling stories and as i was writing iti telling stories and as i was writing it i was thinking about the fact that, you probably know better than me, but it seems like in the last ten yea rs me, but it seems like in the last ten years the word narrative has seized hold of people's imaginations, ten years ago people didn't talk about it in the same weight. it's one of the legacies of the blair kira. meite and olson said

the blair kira. meite and olson said the labour party needed to find a new narrative. we will be talking about rasputin next.|j new narrative. we will be talking about rasputin next. i thought how weird, people are so self conscious about the need to construct stories and have a back story and an attractive charismatic central figure struggling to do something. it seems like the techniques of novel writing have been adopted wholesale by spin doctors and political analysts and movers and shakers. when you were writing it you must have been aware that the whole political debate about fake news, which is the now famous phrase, about truth and falsehood, about the manipulation of truth, have really been taken and thrust into the limelight for us all in a way that wasn't the case by the dzagoev. that was the weird thing about the book, ifinished it last

spring, fake news wasn't a word when i handed the book into my publisher andi i handed the book into my publisher and i had a weird tingling in my spine when the bizarre events of last year took place and people started arguing about truth and falsehood and alternative facts. it was so falsehood and alternative facts. it was so bizarre. it's nothing new under the sun, though. the other thing was i was conscious when i was writing that this is a book that deals with anti—semitism and that's sort of the oldest hatred of all. sadly it is evergreen, it doesn't seem sadly it is evergreen, it doesn't seem like it's ever going to disappear. of course it's a perennial subject for novelists and yet there's nothing you describe as old—fashioned but there's nothing familiar about that theme in this book, oh, here we go again, because it is wrapped up in this enigmatic figure who clearly fascinates you, almost assesses you. i found

notovitch so strange. here's this quy: notovitch so strange. here's this guy, in british india, what's he doing? he finds this book, he said jesus was studying buddhism, he then turns up in a lot of other people '5 books. in real life notovitch actually does. but you only see flashes of him. there's no biography, we don't know when he died, we're not 100% sure when he was born but he flashes up a lot of times in declassified documents from british india. i have to say from what i've read about him he doesn't seem what i've read about him he doesn't seem like the nicest person in the world. he seems to have inspired distrust above all. my notovitch is slightly different. but the fact he was there doing this thing and the fa ct was there doing this thing and the fact he disappeared from history i find it extraordinary. in a way, the post—cold war world with all those horrible certainties removed has produced, as everybody knows, a version of political chaos that we

are living through and it seems to me that what you're trying to catch there is something of that flavour almost exactly a century before. but also what's weird is that period, it seems like so many of the stories that are still current are emerging and stories about communism or progress or liberalism and what rights we're fighting for and a lot of very noble ideals that lead to rights and extending franchise to women and all these things... this isa women and all these things... this is a cocktail of very modern ideals and even the technology is modern, they get the first long—distance telephone lines, 0k, they get the first long—distance telephone lines, ok, you can only call as far as belgium from paris but still, we think of our era as unique and so special in terms of the speed with which news travels and the way fake news can be disseminated around the world, it really wasn't that different in paris in the 18 eighties. really wasn't that different in paris in the 18 eightieslj really wasn't that different in

paris in the 18 eighties. i think ultimately it's a hymn of praise to the story and the art of storytelling, which can be manipulated and be dangerous and damaging, but which is so fundamental to our nature and you clearly feel that in every bone of your body. i really do and i love stories, i longed to be seduced by stories, i longed to be seduced by stories, but i was aware when i was writing it that we have this idea of stories as wonderful things and my wife came back with a book festival bag that says stories are bridges to other worlds, that's true but stories are also other things, they are also propaganda, poison, lies. i wa nted are also propaganda, poison, lies. i wanted both for the reader to feel like this story is something that absolutely involves them but also for them to open their eyes to the manipulation of story and to see how ubiquitous these forms of storytelling are. notovitch jo marcel theroux, author of the secret books, thank you very much. thank you. and for some wet sunday is on the

way, already rain heading from northern ireland into pembrokeshire, cornwall, devon. in the morning some heavy bursts, quite windy. slowly pushing east, sunshine across the east of the uk, cloud building and the breeze picking up and even here at the end of the day some patchy and light rain will move in. some spots in the east getting to 20, the rain, 15, 16, cooler in the wind. plenty coastal and hill fog developing to the south and west as we go into sunday evening and sunday night. if you stay dry by day in the east a few spits and spots reaching you on monday night but the weather system is weakening and grinding to a halt on monday so the source of a goal, damp start on monday morning. parts of england and wales will brighten up and scotland and northern ireland will see wet weather moving in during the day. showery rain the heads our way on tuesday onwards and by the end of

next week it looks quite wet and windy. this is bbc news. our top stories: flooding across south asia has affected more than 45 million people and left 1,400 dead. 0ur correspondent has been to bihar, one of the worst—hit provinces of india. water was above his head, and came washing through. and you can see that it has just left absolutely terrible mud behind. president trump flies in for another visit to flood—hit texas, this time calling for nearly $8 billion in federal aid. the un says nearly 60,000 rohingya muslims have fled into bangladesh from myanmar in the past week, bringing with them stories of atrocities. so many people were killed. they just set fire to everything.