Crime fiction at Easter? Look no further than our Scandinavian neighbours

If you thought that winter in Britain had gone on long enough this year, then spare a thought for the Norwegians. Winters in Norway are famously long, dark and bitter, and – for those who experience them year upon year – can be incredibly boring. During one such winter, in February 1923, two Norwegians called Nordahl Grieg and Nils Lie decided to alleviate their boredom by writing a book. The theme? A train robbery; or more specifically, a looting of the train to Bergen. The title of the book? The Bergen train was robbed in the night (or, in its original Norwegian: Bergenstoget plyndret i natt).

Having written the book, the next step was to convince people to buy it, and here the authors came up with a very cunning plan indeed. They decided to advertise their book by printing its title on the front page of the national newspaper Aftenposten, thus convincing thousands that this was headline news rather than a PR stunt, and cementing its place as the most popular Easter book in Norwegian history.