The Argus: Brighton Festival Thumb Prolific fiction writer Henning Mankell, famous for his creation of Inspector Wallender, lives by two rules: to laugh every day and to learn something every day. In an hour of entertainment and inspiration, the audience got both laughter and learning in spades. A born speaker, Mankell revealed in anecdote his passionate commitment to human rights. Listening, he said, is the way of the future: so we did, enthralled.

Listening comes naturally to Mankell – he confessed to eavesdropping on mobile conversations he passes on to his characters. Listening is also the key to his success with a theatre company in Mozambique, where he spends half of his life, engaged with a population who largely don’t read or write. A 12-year-old Ugandan orphan girl who showed him a blue butterfly to evoke her mother, inspired his Memory Book Project which connects HIV Aids orphans to their roots.

He extolled fiction as an efficient tool to influence society. Wallender in the first novel is “not interested in politics”, a view Mankell argues is dangerous for Sweden. Upon discovery that readers relate to the fictional Wallender as “real”, he gave Wallender opinions. The Wallender series alone has sold 40 million copies worldwide. Mankell is listening.