tv Talking Books BBC News December 22, 2019 1:30am-2:00am GMT
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he'd been diagnosed with alzheimer's disease. he spent a large part of his career at west ham. the club saying the 1966 world cup winner passed away peacefully in his sleep in the early hours of saturday morning following a long and courageous battle with illness. tributes have been paid. on twitter...
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earlier we heard from steve perryman, a former teammate of martin peters at tottenham in the seventies. he told us how he will remember him. martin was one of those people that just deserved more than being a footballer of high repute, which he obviously was. he did things for charity, he was kind, he was a proper gentleman - if he promised to do something, he delivered it. and therefore, with what he did in the world cup and stuff like that, i mean, these days, we talk about giving honours to footballers when they get to a semifinal, martin peters actually won the world cup for england. i only ever played with two world cup winners in my life, the other was ossie ardiles, and both very classy people and very, very intelligent.
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his conduct, with regard to how he... ..you're in a special situation, being a footballer at a top—class club, and because of that, you're like a role model. he took that serious, that he should conduct himself in a certain way. other people speak on the television today about the liverpool team being drunk for five days and therefore not taking this world club championship very seriously. martin peters took football very, very seriously, and the way that he came across to the public, that wasn't an act, that was his way. he was gentle, he was correct, he was proper, he was educated, and that's how he lived his life. and a great family man. now on bbc news,
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it's talking books. kirsty walk has been talking to award—winning author arne dahl, best known for his stockholm—based intercrime series of books. hello, and welcome to talking books the edinburgh international festival. every other festival gathers more than a thousand writers and thinkers to and discuss new ideas and new writing. with me today is arne dahl, the swedish crime writer. his books written under this pen—name and his real name, jan arnald, have sold over 4 million copies in been translated into different languages. he looks at the darkest days of mankind, his narrative uncertainly the reader to what has been described as bone deep
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discomfort. arne dahl, it is absolutely wonderful and ian rankin, who you know, our famous crime writer said you were possibly the most thoughtful, playful contemporary nordic crime writer and he also happens to be one of the most thrilling. i was a playful is a very mild word for what i regard as totally terrifying! you presumably set out to terrify and destabilise the arena to hook them in because in the arena to hook them in because in the beginning of... obviously hunted isa the beginning of... obviously hunted is a book that follows on watching you and we do not know who is good and who is bad. no,, no, it is true.
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it isa and who is bad. no,, no, it is true. it is a kind of destabilising way of writing. i used to write the into crime series of... which has been made into television all over the world. indeed, it has been going well... laughter and i love it very much but the characters were very solid, you could trust the police officers, they were there in the midst of hell breaking news and you could lean on these characters. i wa nted could lean on these characters. i wanted to try characters that were not as reliable and you are not really sure who to trust and who not to trust. and it turned out that it made a big difference for the structure of the work. presumably it also made the structure of the work much more complicated because, at all times, you are really unaware and uncertain and unsafe as to who the good guys. yes, when i did this,
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i started the new series with watching you and i thought i want to get rid off of a little bit of all the political and sociological stuff that i used before and wanted to focus on psychology and thrill, basically. so i thought, this is going to be my less political book. it somehow turned out this was a feeling that was very contemporary, that feeling of who can you trust? can you trust the police? can you trust the politicians? can you trust the state? can you trust the state, exactly so it was much more contemporary than i anticipated. and a photo, it is the gift that keeps giving. you have actually completed the third book in what has turned
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out to be a trilogy but before we get there, your main male character, would you like to tell us a bit through an abstract about you. this is the beginning of chapter two and it is thursday the 12th of november and it is 11117. his name is burger, sam berger, that is all he knew, except for the fact that he had to get out, get away. he put his hand against the kitchen window. it was so against the kitchen window. it was so cold, it felt like a sweat was going to stick his fingertips to the glass. when he quickly pulled his hand away, the print was so clear, he wondered if it he was mostly made up he wondered if it he was mostly made upa he wondered if it he was mostly made up a scam. he wondered if it he was mostly made up a scam. the first drink is on the window his own reflection. he raised his right hand and extended his index and middle making his hand
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look like a double barrel revolver and shot himself. outside the window, everything was white, utterly white. the thick covering of snow lay flat. it was covering a field or perhaps a meadow and seemed to stretch to infinity, until he detected movement, way off in the distance, at a point where his vision could onlyjust reached. if he strained his eyes, he could just see that rectangular block moving along the edge of the field was a bus. that was where he had to go. that was the road out, away. applause .so we applause . so we know that sambodromo is in
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some kind of trouble, some kind of incarceration. —— sam berger. he is a discredited detective, outside the system. molly, in the first book, we're not if she is a good back and dear, these wonderful relations with these clever women. how do you go about these relationships?” these clever women. how do you go about these relationships? i wanted this time to create a really complicated relationship sam berger with her was confronted with a new kind of woman who has not really been confronted before and that turns out to be molly bloom and he has this feeling that he knows everything. he's sitting at the interrogation desk and he read the person opposite him completely but
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this time he cannot and that relationship between him and molly becomes the centre really of this whole trilogy. it truly does and, when you talked earlier about this lack of trust in the police and security services, which is mirrored in the lack of trust in these relationships and yet they have to rely on each other, how is your relationship with the authorities because of these books? do they like you? do they worry about you? and you? do they worry about you? and you are so you? do they worry about you? and you are so popular with the readers. ifiam you are so popular with the readers. if i am being followed i have not noticed. if there is one thing i can say about swedish after role is the freedom press is complete. because they whatever you want. freedom press is complete. because they whatever you wantlj freedom press is complete. because they whatever you want. i was interested in knowing crime writers
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had touchstones, moles, is it all in your head all, do you read up stuff all the time? yes, i cannot really tell you that. giving away too many secrets. yes, i have a couple of people that i can talk to about certain things. do you think we are living in particularly untraceable times. i know you referred to fake news before, the idea that we do not know if we are being told the truth? it historically this tends to be a pendulum movement. you know, right 110w pendulum movement. you know, right now we are in a state where even science is being questioned in many ways. because there are people gaining from spreading fake news and
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false information, in so many different ways that i think we are living in a rather extreme time right now. and this feeling in these books of slight paranoia, you know, who on earth can we trust? it is the feeling of today in the world. in both watching you and hunted one of the overarching themes is that everybody is watching everybody else and this idea that we are all under surveillance is vague, contemporary idea. when i wrote the intercrime serious, when i wrote the temple, what is the biggest difference from 1997 when i wrote the first one to
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the 2006 and that was surveillance. imean, the the 2006 and that was surveillance. i mean, the last book is very much about surveillance, cameras, satellites, everything and that is the biggest difference. my first book, which was the blinded man told is about a cassette tape so that kind of gives you the span of the whole development since then. kind of gives you the span of the whole development since thenm kind of gives you the span of the whole development since then. it is interesting because when molly bloom sam berger and are hiding out, but they are doing is that they can only actually emerge when the satellite are not going to pick them up. they are not going to pick them up. they are trying to escape as far away from civilisation as possible which in sweden is up in the north, north of the polar circle but even there
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they have to stay away from the satellite because they know that somehow they are possibly being watched so the times that you cannot escape. you say something about society in that. what you about that idea that we are all being watched? it is horrible, basically. as long as this is in the hands of a democracy, and a functioning democracy, and a functioning democracy, it is not so immediately dangerous, of course, but the threat is there are other ways of governing the country that are awaiting around the country that are awaiting around the corner so it is a time bomb. it is waiting to blow up in our faces. and it will not be so long before we are all achieved? no, no, they are starting to also think about these ships in the brain and stuff so it
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is very close. in brazil, for example, they have used it for a long time because there are so many kidnappings in different cities so they can... the kidnappers know this and they start cutting out the chips, it is horrible. ifeel something of a plot for the next novel coming up. you clearly said that nothing ever happens at 11 o'clock or 1230, things only happen at 1157, 218, why? i suppose it is a subconscious level. i love it when it says that in thrillers and tv and in movies. budapest, tuesday,. so it has no more meaning than you just
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love it? —— has no more meaning than you just love it? "14: 23. as you read your books you realise no detail at any pa rt books you realise no detail at any part of the book is wasted. there is no waste of space in my books. talking about space, and you talk about getting as far away and beyond the polar north in sweden, and a big feature of your books are very much the desolation of the landscape, the impact of snow, the impact of blinding you, the impact of not having any handle on where you actually are, and the idea that there is so much desolation around, there is so much desolation around, the longest road in europe, the inaccessibility, where you cannot see through. do you actually know the country pretty intimately?” see through. do you actually know the country pretty intimately? i do. spent a lot of time up there and in the polar circle, especially when my kids were younger, they were baptised there because my wife at the time came from those areas. so i
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know about the polar lights, for example, i know about these nights that go on forever, which is terrifying. i don't understand how people can survive the, because the sunjust sort people can survive the, because the sun just sort of pops up a little bit, and then it goes down again. that idea of desolation leads to another idea of insecurity and lack of safety, because you don't know if anyone is there, you don't know if you are safe. were you ever terrified in that area? you create a terrifying atmosphere there. yes, i was. and they have been kind of skiing in areas where they didn't know... there was nothing, no marks, no landscape that you can rely on. and it was the same in every direction. 360 degrees ofjust
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white. and that is terrifying. that is an experience you don't... white. and that is terrifying. that is an experience you don't. .. so did you use a gps or a compass? what did you... at that time it was a compass. everybody should know how to use a compass and case the world ta kes to use a compass and case the world takes out all the tech. also you have completely shattered any illusion that you can be happy in a shed. because you have got the most terrifying selection of sheds, shacks, just when all the scandinavian design books tell you have to have a fabulous year to be happy, and they have a new shed, but frankly the most rebel things happening sheds. i'm so sorry. what is it about caverns? it is a very swedish thing, of course. it is a very swedish thing. you could say almost everybody has a cabin somewhere. outside stockholm we have this archipelago which has 30,000 islands and i go there myself and i
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will be writing a loss of the books in islands. —— lot of. it is the kind of isolation, i think. it's your own place. you have the neighbours, but they are far enough away. so i suppose i was yeah, caverns, sheds, but lots of basements. yes! i suppose it is somewhere in my subconscious somewhere in my subconscious somewhere so bideau was going to say, the basement in punted is particularly a place of total horror. -- hunted. we know that people are torture and murder are terrible, but you seem to manage to imagine the most awful deaths for people. and i wonder, do you sit in
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yourcabin and think people. and i wonder, do you sit in your cabin and think how badly can this person die? it's not really at all like that. i know there is some kind of ladder in the world of crime fiction and in the world of thrillers, where you have to sort of beat the next guy to get to the next level of horror. i'm not really taking part in that. the surveillance aspect of it to me, watching people, you think something is going to happen to them. it's that kind of restraint. yes, it's more that. and i suppose this story changed a little bit. it's not... this whole series, this new series is more based on the fact that i wa nted is more based on the fact that i wanted to try to surprise the most critical reader i know, which is myself. they wanted to surprise
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myself. they wanted to surprise myself. so there is a scene when three people go down the stairs into a basement and they were, in my original idea, just looking around finding nothing. and that was a door that it was going to be a bit exciting when they opened it, but that was just going to be stuff in there. but when i've followed these three people down the stairs and i saw that door again, with their eyes, i've realised something had to happen here. and when the door is kicked open instead of opened, the whole story changed. and it became a more brutal and gruesome story than iimagine more brutal and gruesome story than i imagine from the beginning. york character, who is a senior superintendent, she is super smart. absolutely love her —— your character. she has a special garage
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at home that she retreats to, a kind of garage within a garage where she set out everything on the wall. we know that from all the killing and everything else we know that people are using post— its. your plots are so are using post— its. your plots are so complex, do you do that? eye realised when i was going to write the title? the blinded man, i had different notes were different colours. why was living in a small apartment. i could not put it there so apartment. i could not put it there so i've put it on the floor instead. and they had small children. so every morning when i woke up this story was different. laughter. and that made me stop using post—it notes. so it is in your head! the reader in a way finishes the book as well, brings their own things to the
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book. what i think of her might be different to what you think of her. absolutely. and that is what i've really love about meeting audiences and readers in general. how different they can be perceiving a different they can be perceiving a different characters. you have been published in 32 and going on countries. and i wonder, in the same way different people take things from different characters, how are you perceived in different societies, different countries?m is really interesting to see the differences. let's call it the british audience, they are very used to crime fiction. this is where everything started in so many ways. it is really about the story, the plot and the characters and so on.
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and in other parts, when i was in latin america, for example, they we re latin america, for example, they were mostly interested in the social democracy and the political aspect of things. and then there are other parts of the world where some kind of violence is a little bit sensitive, like germany, for example, where they think they are very brutal. and i'm not. sometimes you a pretty brutal. you devise horrendous torture for people. hunter turned out to be a bit rougher than expected it to be. when they realised what was happening in this book and the kind of psychology that was necessary for it, the brutality had to increase a little bit. you can read hunted on its own.
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i think it is better to have read there watching you, does this distrust and paranoia continue with the third book you have written? no, no, everything is fine now. everything is brilliant. no, no, i'm afraid it continues. and, of course, these three books, they are separate stories. but there are threads going through them. in those threads will be entered in book number three. ladies and gentlemen, arne dahl. thank you. thank you. thank you. applause
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hello. fog is again a concern throughout the rest of the night and into sunday morning, lingering for some all morning. and the flood warnings are numerous across england and wales with weather warnings out that you can get on the website and it has been so wet this december as the rain makes its way into the river systems we expect those flood warnings to increase. certainly spray and standing water. look at this area of cloud. that heavy rain easing away through sunday. but this area of low pressure to the north—west still driving in showers. it is likely we will have fog issues as i said earlier, particularly northern ireland, but some of the south as well around this area of rain and ice on the north because temperatures are below freezing here. fog could be just about anywhere. the rain really drags its heels in clearing and once it clears away, brighter spells to come through, sunshine once the fog lifts and there will be a scattering of showers around that risk westerly wind continuing in the south taking the edge of this temperature here. decent spells of sunshine around through the second half of sunday. however, as we go through sunday night, it will continue to blow this westerly wind in, that area of low pressure close by so nothing too mild over the christmas period
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and nothing too chilly either. but with the westerly wind the showers continue. as i mentioned, we will see many of them gathering across northern ireland and scotland and a wintry element to them, hail and wonder through the day ahead in the showers and certainly so through the night and into monday. that continuation of heavy showers, particularly in the north. the south will he's off ahead of that next area of rain. the timing on that are still uncertain but likely to come in, we think, through monday night and into tuesday. so that gives us another period, wet period of 5—10, possibly 15
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millimetres of rain. again on the saturated ground, nowhere else for it to go. further north, fog with lighter wind as well and it mayjust linger on christmas eve, that tailback of cloud and patchy rain but we are hopeful it will be a decent day for christmas eve with a lot of dry weather to be found as well. not especially warm. as we get into christmas day, the next area of low pressure starts to wind itself up and later in the day and into boxing day it could potentially bring more rain, hill snow and strong wind as well. stay tuned.
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hello, and welcome to bbc news. i'm maryam moshiri. the australian prime minister, scott morrison, has acknowledged public anger at his decision to go on holiday while his country faces a bushfire crisis. mr morrison said if he could go back he would have made a different choice. the fires are expected to worsen with more hot, dry weather expected. gareth barlow reports. this is the remarkable, almost apocalyptic scene facing firefighters tackling australia's deadly and devastating wildfires. fire chiefs described saturday as an awful day. as thousands of personnel tackle raging infernos,
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