JAMES THOMPSON is on a roll. He has just published his fourth book in four years, and reviews are glowing.

Thompson’s first book published internationally, Snow Angels, received an Edgar nomination for Best First Novel. It was also nominated for Best First Novel in the Strand Magazine Critics Award. In it, detective Kari Vaara investigates the murder of a beautiful Somali actress in Lapland.

Lucifer’s Tears, or Kylmä kuolema in Finnish, is the second in the Inspector Vaara series. Detective Kari Vaara is now in Helsinki with his American wife Kate. Her unemployed brother and right-wing fanatic sister come to visit, threatening Vaara’s domestic bliss.

Salvation Army commander Dick Krommenhoek responds to the need of the world.

FACT ONE: The Salvation Army is a Church in its own right, not just the international charity organisation it’s renowned for being. Fact Two: The Salvation Army’s ranks mirror its military counterpart’s. Fact Three: Salvation Army commanders are transferred across the globe at the command of the General with only three months’ notice. That’s how Dick Krommenhoek came to live in Finland – he was appointed The Salvation Army’s Territorial Commander of Finland and Estonia in 2008.

DRAWING on the madcap energy of Monty Python, Irishman Frank Boyle and Brits Jonathan Hutchings and Leslie Hyde developed a cult following in Finland throughout the 1990s with English Theatre Comedy (ETC). After breaking away from amateur theatre group Finn-Brit players, the trio made a name for themselves with their fast-paced, unpredictable and hilarious sketch comedy, performed primarily in pubs.

With the group disbanding at the end of the 90s, Boyle and Hutchings continued with acting, with Boyle’s A Public Reading of Charles Dickens and Hutchings’ performance in Rare Exports notable recent appearances.

COMEDIAN Ali Jahangiri, 29, moved to Finland from Iran as a refugee with his parents in 1991. A business consultant, he started performing stand-up comedy on and off in 2004 and in 2010 decided to take the plunge into full-time comedy. Also a cofounder of the group We Do Comedy, which books comedians for companies and events, he’ll be performing in English at Gloria Cultural Arena in March as part of the Week Against Racism.

Jahangiri sat down with SixDegrees to talk about growing up as an immigrant in Finland and the importance of not being afraid of the True Finns, Christmas, or the black man.

A STUDENT of Political Science and a peace activist, Bruno Jäntti is also a founding member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) chapter in Finland and is currently researching, amongst other things, the Finnish military with the Israeli arms industry.

I was born and raised in Helsinki and at the moment I’m studying Political Science at Tampere University. After completing my civil service I felt that it was time to leave Helsinki Metropolitan Area for a while and to study either abroad or somewhere else in Finland.