Today is a very sad day. Have you ever felt crushed by the death of someone you've never met? I found out late last night that the wonderful writer Henning Mankell has been taken from us at the all too young age of 67.
Like most people I discovered the incredible talent of Mr Mankell through his books and the much loved character of Kurt Wallander. The morose, Swedish detective Kurt, and the novels he lives in, will forever be very dear to me, but they are not the whole story of Mr Mankell by any means.
He was a very prolific journalist, a playwright (he penned 40 plays) and co-ran the community theatre Teatro Avenida in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. He was also a passionate and tireless campaigner in education about hiv/aids.
Thank you BBC4 for introducing me to Kurt Wallander and thank you Kurt for introducing me to the writing of this incredibly talented author. Henning Mankell was, without a doubt, a towering talent as a writer but he was also an immensely generous, caring man. He made a difference through his charity work in Africa and his death is a loss to the world. It will be a darker world without his presence in it.
If you haven't read any of his work I would absolutely recommend it. Why not begin as I did with the Kurt Wallander novels. You too will, I'm sure, adore the haunting stories where Ystad near Malmo in Sweden is itself as much a character as any other in the books. Till next time dear ones, hugs always xx
I've often been moved to tears by the loss of celebrities who meant something to me. I will check out those novels. Hugs. xx
ReplyDeleteHi Leah, I know what you mean honey. It must be a wonderful thing to be able to make such an impact in the world that people genuinely care, without ever having met whoever it was. Mr Mankell was such a generous man with his time and with his support of charities to. He'll be missed in the world.
DeleteYou'd love the Wallander novels, they're wonderful old school detective stories. They're quite gritty, the same can be said for the Swedish versions of the TV adaptations, but I adore them! Krister Henriksson is so fabulous as Kurt in the Swedish versions and Sir Kenneth Branagh of course was beyond wonderful in the BBC versions. The books are something else, there is something about snuggling up with a really good book that simply can't be matched by anything else. Sending heaps and heaps of huggles honey xxx