Henning Mankell Has Died

Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, best known for his series of crime novels involving the character of Inspector Kurt Wallander that were adapted into a successful BBC TV series starring Kenneth Branagh, has died.

It reads, “The Swedish author and playwright Henning Mankell is dead”.

Kenneth Branagh starred as Wallander in the British TV series of the same name, which ran for four seasons from 2008.

The Wallander series itself won numerous awards and contributed to the massive global interest in Scandinavian crime and thriller novels dubbed Nordic noir. In the interview he said that he was working about two hours a day.

“His work has had a huge impact, particularly on police procedurals with the character of Wallander a touchstone of the genre”.

Mankell, who shared his time between Sweden and Mozambique, published more than 40 novels, plays and children’s books, selling around 40 million copies around the world.

Writing in the Guardian in February 2014, he described the period after his diagnosis as a “10-day-long descent into hell”.

“A few days later…” I have no doubt that my time is mine and mine alone.

Of his decision to document his treatment, he said: “I have chose to write it just as it is, about the hard battle it always is”.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter earlier in the year, Branagh said that he talked to Mankell about finishing Wallander and that the writer was “tremendously unsentimental” about it coming to an end.

After he began exploring Africa in the 1970s, he used to say he had “one foot in the snow, one foot in the sand”.

His agent, Leopard Forlag, confirmed the death on Monday morning, saying: “He passed away quietly last night in the wake of disease”.

The son-in-law of famous Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, Mankell was also a committed activist right from his youth and was also on board a flotilla that had tried to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza in 2010.