Wallander writer Henning Mankell dies

Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell, best known for novels featuring Inspector Kurt Wallander, dies aged 67

The writer revealed he had cancer in a newspaper column last year, adding: "My anxiety is very profound."

He dealt with the experience in his most recent book Quicksand: What It Means To Be A Human Being.

His best-selling mystery novels, which follow policeman Kurt Wallander through Sweden and Mozambique, were turned into a TV drama starring Kenneth Branagh.

Born in February 1948, Mankell wrote dozens of plays, novels, children's books and screenplays. But it was for his Wallander series that he was most renowned.

The rumpled and gloomy detective got his name when Mankell ran his finger through a telephone directory, but went on to sell more than 40 million books.

Mankell divided his time between Sweden and Mozambique, where he ran a theatre company and devoted time to the fight against Aids.

He was active in the "memory books" project, which encourages parents with HIV to record their stories, not just for their children but for future generations.

Shortly after New Year 2014, the author went to see an orthopaedic surgeon in Stockholm with what he assumed was a slipped disc. But tests revealed a tumour in his lung, another in his neck, and evidence the cancer had spread throughout his body.

He leaves his wife of 17 years, Eva Bergman, the daughter of Ingmar Bergman's second wife, the dancer Ellen Lundstrom.