Leif G. W. Persson | |
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 Leif G.W. Persson at the Gothenburg Book Fair in 2013 | |
| Born | Leif Gustav Willy Persson 12 March 1945 Stockholm, Sweden |
| Occupation |
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| Nationality | Swedish |
| Period | 1978–present |
| Genre | |
| Notable works | He Who Kills the Dragon Falling Freely, As in a Dream Linda - as in the Linda Murder Case |
| Website | |
| www | |
Leif Gustav Willy "GW" Persson (born 12 March 1945) is a Swedish criminologist and novelist. Persson has four children, one of whom, Malin Persson Giolito, is also a crime writer. [1]
Leif Gustav Willy Persson was born on 12 March 1945 in Stockholm, Sweden to Gustav and Margit Persson. He attended the High School Norra Real.
In 1977, while working at the Swedish National Police Board, Persson was the whistleblower who worked with journalist Peter Bratt in the so-called Geijer Scandal when he confirmed a classified memo sent by then National Police Commissioner Carl Persson to Prime Minister Olof Palme about the alleged ties of the Minister of Justice, Lennart Geijer, to a prostitution ring in Stockholm. Following this affair he was fired from the National Police Board. The string of events almost drove Persson to suicide, [2] but he soon returned as lecturer at Stockholm University. The prostitution ring affair inspired him to write his first novel, Grisfesten. He returned to the National Police Board as a professor in 1992.
Persson was a professor in criminology at the Swedish National Police Board from 1992 to 2012. He is well known in Sweden for his crime fiction novels [3] and for his regular appearances as an expert commentator on notable crime cases on television and in newspapers. Between 1999 and 2009, he participated as an expert commentator on the TV3 television show Efterlyst , which is primarily about wanted Swedish criminals. Between 2010 and 2018, he participated in the SVT television show Veckans Brott with Camilla Kvartoft, which is primarily about unsolved Swedish criminal cases both recent and cold. In 2018, his move to SVT's competitor TV4 was widely published. At TV4, his new show Brottsjournalen (2018 - 2020) covered primarily recent and cold Swedish criminal cases that went unsolved together with Jenny Strömstedt. [4]
In 1990, Persson together with Jan Guillou and Pär Lorentzon appeared in a SVT program Grabbarna på Fagerhult, indulging in hunting, fishing, and other traditionally male leisure activities. [5] As the 1990s went on, Leif GW Persson emerged as one of Sweden's most acclaimed media personalities, and his popularity continued to grow through the 2000s.
Often referred to simply as "GW", he frequently appears on television, radio, and in other media as a commentator on crime and criminology. Among other things, he is a noted expert on the unsolved 1986 assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, and has been harshly critical of police and prosecutors. He also holds forth on other issues, including politics, literature, and wine, etc, and is well known for his great interest in hunting. He takes an irreverent attitude to authorities, regularly dismissing officials as incompetent or lazy. Persson's disheveled appearance, biting wit, and characteristic manner of speech, replete with mumbling and grunting, has made him a cult figure often lovingly parodied in the media. His extraordinary media stardom has in recent years been the theme of several journalistic investigations; at one point, Swedish public radio asked "How much Leif GW Persson can Sweden handle?". [6] [7]
A self-described bacchanalian and an alcoholic, Persson has famously coped with his addiction by practicing a strict half-year regime since the late 1980s: denying himself alcohol (and other drugs) for six months, and then drinking heavily during the rest of the year. In 2018, at age 73, he announced that his failing health would prevent him from fully resuming alcohol use, lamenting that he would henceforth be "unrecognizable" for an entire year instead of the usual six sober months. [8]
Persson, who is overweight and has at times been very obese, has also struggled with his food intake. In the early 2000s, he was forced to abandon a habit of "food orgies" – regular bouts of extremely lavish, high-end gourmet dining and drinking – with his friend, the media mogul Jan Stenbeck, after his physician warned that his heart could not take another year of it. According to Persson, it was Stenbeck's refusal to cut back on the gourmandizing that led to his death in 2002. [9]
So far, three of Persson's novels feature homicide detective Evert Bäckström. Bäckström is one of the most successful investigators within the police force; he displays excellent deductive skills.
Bäckström appeared as a supporting character in the TV mini-series En pilgrims död and Den fjärde mannen. (The main characters in these series were Jarnebring and Johansson.) In both of these series, Bäckström was played by Claes Malmberg.
An American TV Series was made in 2015 entitled Backstrom . The show takes place in Portland, Oregon, USA instead of Sweden, and the character's first name is changed to Everett. However the character's actual personality remains more or less unchanged. Backstrom was played by Rainn Wilson. The show was cancelled after one season.
In a Swedish TV series, Bäckström is played by Kjell Bergqvist. The first season of six episodes aired in 2020. The second season of six episodes aired in 2022.
Several of Persson's novels feature police officers Bo Jarnebring and Lars Martin Johansson, partners and best friends.
In the film Mannen från Mallorca (adapted from the novel Grisfesten) Jarnebring is played by Sven Wollter, and Johansson by Tomas von Brömssen. Two TV mini-series featuring the characters were produced starring Rolf Lassgård as Johansson and Per Svensson as Jarnebring: En pilgrims död (2013) and Den fjärde mannen (2014-15). (These two series also featured Persson's other character Evert Bäckström.) A third series Den döende detektiven was broadcast in 2018.
Created by Persson, police detective Anna Holt has appeared in both Persson's novels, and in novels by fellow author Jan Guillou. Holt has also appeared in several television adaptations starring Petra Nielsen.
Persson won the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award (Bästa svenska kriminalroman), for three of his novels: Samhällsbärarna in 1982, En annan tid, ett annat liv in 2003, and Den döende detektiven in 2010. This award is a literary prize awarded annually by the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy.
He also received the 2011 Glass Key award for Den döende detektiven (The Dying Detective); this award is a given annually to a crime novel by an author from the Nordic countries and the 2011 Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, which is awarded by the Det danske Kriminalakademi for the best criminal literature translated into Danish.
Henning Georg Mankell was a Swedish crime writer, children's author, and dramatist, best known for a series of mystery novels starring his most noted creation, Inspector Kurt Wallander. He also wrote a number of plays and screenplays for television.
Maj Sjöwall was a Swedish author and translator. She is best known for her books about police detective Martin Beck. She wrote the books in collaborative work with her partner Per Wahlöö.
Martin Beck is a fictional Swedish police detective and the main character in the ten novels by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, collectively titled The Story of a Crime. Frequently referred to as the Martin Beck stories, all have been adapted into films between 1967 and 1994, six of which were included in a series featuring Gösta Ekman as Martin Beck. Between 1997 and 2018 there have also been 38 films based on the characters, with Peter Haber as Martin Beck. Apart from the core duo of Beck and his right-hand man Gunvald Larsson, the latter have little resemblance to the original series, and feature a widely different and evolving cast of characters, though roughly similar themes and settings around Stockholm.
Bo Gunnar Widerberg was a Swedish film director, writer, editor and actor.
Kurt Wallander is a fictional Swedish police inspector created by Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell. He is the protagonist of many thriller/mystery novels set in and around the town of Ystad, 56 km (35 mi) south-east of the city of Malmö, in the southern province of Scania. Wallander has been portrayed on screen by the actors Rolf Lassgård, Krister Henriksson, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Adam Pålsson.
Sven Justus Fredrik Wollter was a Swedish actor, writer, and political activist. Wollter is one of the most renowned Swedish actors, he was awarded Best Swedish actor twice. In his native country, he became widely known through his role as Madame Flod's son Gusten in Swedish Television's adaption of The People of Hemsö by August Strindberg in 1966. Later he had several notable roles, including in 1976 when he played Detective Sergeant Lennart Kollberg in Bo Widerberg's film The Man on the Roof. For international viewers, he is best known for his role Victor in the dramatic film The Sacrifice by Andrei Tarkovsky, and for a wider television audience as the retired Detective Chief Inspector Van Veeteren in the cinematic adaptations of Håkan Nesser's police novels.
'Kjell Sylve Eriksson is a Swedish writer, author of the detective chief inspector Ann Lindell crime novels. Den upplysta stigen, the first of the Lindell series, was named Best First Novel of 1999 by the Swedish Crime Academy. Prinsessan av Burundi, fourth in the series, was awarded the Swedish Crime Writers' Academy Best Swedish Crime Novel Award in 2002. Öppen grav, published in 2009, was the tenth and final novel in the series. Currently only eight Lindell novels are available in English, though St. Martin's Press has the rights to the whole series.
Rolf Holger Lassgård is a Swedish actor. He is known for his many roles in crime dramas.
Mari Jungstedt is a Swedish journalist and crime fiction author.
The Man from Majorca is a 1984 Swedish crime thriller film directed by Bo Widerberg. It is based on the novel The Pig Party by Leif G. W. Persson. The film stars Sven Wollter and Tomas von Brömssen.
Wallander is a Swedish television series adapted from Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels, starring Krister Henriksson in the title role. The first season of thirteen films was produced in 2005 and 2006, with one taken directly from a novel and the remainder with new storylines suggested by Mankell. The second season of thirteen films was shown between 2009 and 2010. The stories are set in Ystad, Skåne near the southern tip of Sweden.
Thorsten Flinck, is a Swedish actor, director, and musician. He is known best for playing psychopaths and villains, and also for his outrageous personality both on stage and in real life. Between 1986 and 2002, Flinck was employed by the Royal Dramatic Theatre.
Harry Söderman was a Swedish police officer and criminalist. In his native Sweden, he went by the nickname "Revolver-Harry".
Backstrom is an American crime comedy-drama television series that aired from January 22 through April 30, 2015. It was developed by Hart Hanson based on the Swedish book series by Leif G. W. Persson. The series is set in Portland, Oregon and filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. On May 8, 2015, Fox cancelled the series after one season.
Modus is a Swedish television psychological thriller series, directed by Lisa Siwe and Mani Maserrat, based upon the novel Frukta inte by Norwegian author and lawyer Anne Holt and adapted for television by Emmy Award winning writers Mai Brostrøm and Peter Thorsboe. The series follows the work of Inger Johanne Vik, a Swedish criminal psychologist and profiler, who has previously assisted both the Swedish police and the FBI in the United States.
Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End is a novel by Leif G. W. Persson, published in 2002.
Stig Folke Wilhelm Engström was a Swedish graphic designer. Long treated by police as an eyewitness to the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme, Engström was separately proposed as Palme's assassin by the Swedish writers Lars Larsson and Thomas Pettersson.
Morden i Sandhamn is a Swedish television crime drama series. It is based on the book series of the same name by writer, Viveca Sten, with later seasons set in Sten's fictional universe. The series is broadcast on TV4, which has presented nine seasons from 20 December 2010. The series follows Nora Linde, a lawyer who owns a summer house on Sandhamn, and her assistance in solving various murders on or near that island. Portraying Nora's children, Simon and Anna, are real-life siblings, Lion Monn and Ping Monn, respectively. The first six seasons featured Thomas Andreasson of the Nacka police as the lead detective. From season seven, Alexander Forsman is the new lead detective.
22-year-old Helena Andersson disappeared on 14 June 1992 in Mariestad, Sweden. Since then, several different suspects in her disappearance have been arrested, and later released without charge. The disappearance has received extensive media attention since 1992.
Jägarna is a Swedish crime drama TV series, which was broadcast on C More and TV4 from 14 November 2018. The first season of six episodes was filmed in Älvsbyn, Norrbotten County with Jens Jonsson and Johan Lundin directing. It was created by Björn Carlström and Stefan Thunberg who were also its main script writers. Appearing in both seasons, Rolf Lassgård reprises his lead role as Erik Bäckström from Swedish films The Hunters and False Trail. Carlström co-wrote both films while Thunberg co-wrote False Trail. Erik is a retired policeman who unofficially investigates a local murder involving mining company boss Markus. The second season of six episodes began on 8 March 2021 with Jonsson and Lundin directing and Carlström and Thunberg as main script writers. Erik re-investigates the 2005 murder of a local woman, which Erik had ascribed to her boyfriend Joar. Lassgård is joined across both seasons by Johan Marenius Nordahl, who portrays Erik's nephew and rookie policeman Peter, Annika Nordin, who reprises her False Trail role as Peter's mother Karin, and Caroline Johansson Kuhmunen as Peter's love interest Liza.
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