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Outlook: I Survived a Polar Bear Attack

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Matt Dyer

01/09/2015 GMT

I Survived a Polar Bear Attack

BBC World Service - Outlook, I Survived a Polar Bear Attack

Matt Dyer was hiking in a remote part of Canada when he was attacked by a polar bear.

Matt Dyer is a keen hiker who was in a remote part of Canada when he was attacked by a polar bear. He tells Jo Fidgen how the bear ripped into his tent.

Matt Dyer is a lawyer from Maine in the United States, and a keen hiker who'd always dreamed of exploring the Torngat National Park in Canada. Two years ago, he got to go there, on a trip with a few others. At night, they put up tents, and rigged up an electric fence to keep out the bears. But it turned out it wasn't a sufficient deterrent. 

Thelma West grew up in Lagos, with a passion for jewellery. But you can't study gemology, as it's called, in Nigeria, so she came to one of the most famous diamond-trading cities, Antwerp in Belgium, to learn all about them. And she's now a diamond dealer - one of the very few women in the world who work in the business.

Tibor Varga is a Serbian priest who's been looking after migrants hoping to cross the border into Hungary. Many of them are trapped on the Serbian side of the border, and they've gathered at an abandoned brick factory, where Tibor offers them food, advice and shelter.

Etgar Keret is one of Israel's most popular writers. He's famous for his short stories, which show the absurd side of life, and which have been translated into 30 languages. For the first time in 25 years of writing, he's turned his hand to non-fiction, and written a memoir, The Seven Good Years. The stories and essays focus on his relationship with his father, a Holocaust survivor, and his son, whose birth in the aftermath of a bomb attack was the spark for the collection. 

(Picture: Matt Dyer. Photo credit: Jeanne Wells)

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