Deafness and communication, writing Chinese, women as killers in Chile, German postwar history, testimony from a Swedish village and a global history of science are the topics explored in the books shortlisted for this year's prize for Global Cultural Understanding run by the British Academy. Rana Mitter talks to the six authors about their findings. The books are:

The Invention of Miracles: Language, Power, and Alexander Graham Bell's Quest to End Deafness by Katie Booth
Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich by Harald Jähner
Osebol: Voices from a Swedish Village by Marit Kapla
Horizons: A Global History of Science by James Poskett
When Women Kill: Four Crimes Retold by Alia Trabucco Zerán
Kingdom of Characters: A Tale of Language, Obsession and Genius in Modern China by Jing Tsu

The prize of £25,000 will be awarded on October 26th 2022. You can find interviews with writers shortlisted in previous year's on the Free Thinking programme website
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00106pn and https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n0bv

Producer: Tim Bano