"It is a terrible thing to be in possession of a truth that people don't want to hear," writes Howard Jacobson.

By way of Primo Levi, the great chronicler of the Holocaust, Coleridge's 'The Ancient Mariner' and stories emerging today from Ukraine, Howard argues that stories of truth must be listened to, no matter how uncomfortable or challenging we find them.

"No deceit is ever so perfected," he says, "that it doesn't require the connivance of the deceived".

Producer: Adele Armstrong