Philip Kerr: On Parthenon marbles and Hitler's germany

As is his habit Kerr places the setting for his novel in Nazi dominated Berlin. In the new book, the year is 1943, and sleuth Bernie Gunther has a new job at the German War Crimes Bureau in Berlin. There are unsettling reports of a mass grave in a forest near Smolensk, rumours which are validated when a wolf unearths human remains. Polish officers killed by the Russians? This would play into the hands of the regime: a propaganda victory over the Russians. And there is one man who will be able to discern the truth: Bernie Gunther. But Bernie is to find – as so often before – that the truth is not always a welcome commodity.

“I try to be as accurate as possible in terms of places and persons that feature in my books,” noted Kerr. Fielding a question about who he thinks is the most fascinating person of the Third Reich, Kerr answered with verity that Hitler definitely was not: “For me Goebbels was an interesting personality. He had a PhD and wrote novels.” As he characteristically noted, when writing about such personalities it is essential to approach them as people, not monsters.

He also had something to say about the return of the Parthenon sculptures that divided the audience. He spoke about his last visit to Athens when he was witnessing riots in Syntagma, seeing hooded youths breaking the marbles on the square and learning they would be used to pelt police he told the hotel doorman “You'll never get the marbles back this way.”

he also said that Elgin had paid a lot of money for the sculptures and said Greece would have to pay many millions to get them back.he did, however, admit that the UK should return the sculptures and that Germany should also ake this as an example and return all that it has grabbed.

Asked by the Eu he noted that no one votes for “those people,” adding “I don't want to be European. I want to be British and visit Greece, and meet Greeks.”