said that during the past 20 years, payments for natural disasters have increased by 500 percent. He also interviewed Royal Dutch Shell chairman Lord Ron Oxburgh. A PR assistant interrupted them. Oxburgh's negative views on the consequences of current oil consumption were likely considered detrimental to the corporation's image. In March 2006 Theroux presented Death of a Nation on More4, as part of The State of Russia series. In the programme he explored the country's post-Soviet problems, including population decline, the growing AIDS epidemic, and the persecution of the Meskhetian Turks. During interviews in the programme, he spoke simple Russian. On 28 September 2008 he presented Oligart: The Great Russian Art Boom on Channel 4, exploring the role of Russia's rich in keeping Russia's art history alive by buying and exhibiting domestic art. In March 2009, Faber and Faber published Theroux's Far North, a future epic set in the Siberian taiga. On 16 March 2009, Theroux presented In Search of Wabi-sabi on BBC Four, as part of the channel's 'Hidden Japan' season of programming. Theroux travelled and reported from Japan to explore the aesthetic tastes of Japan and its people. In 2012, Theroux presented a documentary for Unreported World Series 23, on the subject of street children in Ukraine. His novel Strange Bodies won the 2014 John W. Campbell Memorial Award. In 2017, Theroux presented a documentary for Unreported World which explored the social and economic consequences of the recent rise in Orthodoxy and Russian nationalism under Vladimir Putin. In 2020, Theroux presented a documentary for Unreported World which explored middle-aged, single Japanese men's obsession with 'Junior Idols' and whether it was a quirk in Japanese culture or something more sinister. Bibliography References External links Interview on Meet The Writers, Monocle 24 with Georgina Godwin "Russia's rise in conservative family values - Unreported World 2017 1968 births Living people English television personalities 21st-century English novelists British people of French-Canadian descent English people of American descent English people of French descent English people of French-Canadian descent English people of Italian descent People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge People from Kampala People from Wandsworth English male novelists Marcel 21st-century English male writers