In the autumn I ran the second #WorldCupofChildrensBooks on Twitter. It followed previous polls to find the best overall Children’s book (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe), the most popular Roald Dahl character (Matilda) and the greatest children’s TV series (Bagpuss). This time round we were ranking the most popular children’s book characters. I … Continue reading
The escapades of Astrid Lindgren’s Bullerby children come with an added layer of muted pleasure thanks to the thick snow that covers everything in Noisy Village at this time of year. There are no strong girls, pet monkeys or outlandish sets of bunches to be found here, instead the sacred moments of the holiday season … Continue reading
Tove Jansson was a long term fan of Lewis Carroll’s work and had studied the layout of his books (with John Tenniel’s illustrations) when creating Comet in Moominland. So the suggestion that she supply illustrations for a new edition of The Hunting of the Snark, with its cast of strange characters and surreal comic tone … Continue reading
In England it is a long, well established fact that the person who delivers our presents is a benevolent, if sometimes grumpy old man called Father Christmas. Americans have their jolly, Coca Cola sponsored Santa Claus. But look further, into the darker reaches of the northern European imagination and the picture becomes much stranger. In … Continue reading
Following on from last year’s list of the best Christmas books for children, 2019 sees a gathering of the very finest illustrated tales of snow, ice and winter magic. These are stories imbued with the sense of wonder and possibility which is evident during the winter months. And when the real world is distinctly lacking … Continue reading
Having completed the first Pippi Lognstocking book in 1945, illustrator Ingrid Vang Nyman teamed up with her cousin Pipaluk Freuchen to create Ivik the Fatherless, later published in the UK as Eskimo Boy. Pipaluk was the half Inuit daughter of Ingrid’s uncle, the famous Arctic explorer Peter Freuchen (surely the inspiration for Pippi’s pirate father). … Continue reading
‘One day Jonas asked me, “Which do you like the best – the sun, the moon, or the stars?” I said that I liked them all, but maybe the stars just a little bit more because they shine so beautifully on Christmas night, and I love Christmas so much!’ Everything you need to know about … Continue reading
During her short life, the illustrator Ingrid Vang Nyman hardly travelled beyond her native Denmark and Sweden, where she lived and helped create Pippi Longstocking and many other wonderful books. But a new exhibition celebrating her centenary shows that a fascination for distant lands and cultures ran deep throughout her work. In the Christmas of … Continue reading
My personal source of hygge is the work of the Danish artist Ingrid Vang Nyman, best known for her work on Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking. At first glance her work could be mistaken for being a bit twee (rather like hygge itself), but spend more time with it and you notice the off-kilter angles, the flat colours and a sense of all pervading oddness. Continue reading
Big love for a European success story today, as Astrid Lindgren’s tale of a naughty little Swede is reimagined by Italian / French artist Beatrice Alemagna (with reference to the English translation by Gerry Bothmer). Lotta is Astrid’s lesser known child anarchist. Several years Pippi Longstocking’s junior, and the youngest of three siblings, Lotta … Continue reading
In England it is a long, well established fact that the person who delivers our presents is a benevolent, if sometimes grumpy old man called Father Christmas. Americans have their jolly pantalooned Santa Claus, and that’s fine (for the purpose of abbreviation). But look further afield the picture becomes much stranger. In Holland the … Continue reading
It’s a great pleasure to welcome Beatrice Alemagna and hear about the books that shaped her as a reader and helped make her a creator of unique picture books. Martin Salisbury singles her out for praise in his selection of 100 Great Children’s Picture Books writing that her ‘constant urge to experiment – graphically and conceptually … Continue reading
Astrid Lindgren’s Lotta is a character every bit as strong as Pippi Longstocking, if not in body, then in sheer wilfulness. Think of her as a Swedish cousin of My Naughty Little Sister, or Lauren Child’s Lola (whose best friend is perhaps un-coincidentally also called Lotta). This series is aimed at a slightly younger … Continue reading
There’s a lot of horror in Tove’s work, Grokes, Hattifatteners and in the psychological short story A Tale of Horror (1962), monstrous Little My. ‘That girl… you’d never believe… I’m not going back there, not in a thousand years,” the Whomper continued savagely. “She tricked me! she told such stories! She makes people sick with her lies!’ Continue reading
Nobody does Christmas quite like Pippi Longstocking. Last year the pigtailed pirate’s daughter put on an after christmas party that culminated in the guests climbing the tree to recover their presents. In Pippi’s Christmas Guests, taken from the second volume of comics by Astrid Lindgren and Ingrid Vang Nyman, our hero faces spending December 25th … Continue reading
I’ve been properly obsessed with Pippi Longstocking since the first volume of comic book adaptations was released last year. First produced for the Swedish children’s magazine Humpty Dumpty by the original creative team Astrid Lindgren and Ingrid Vang Nyman in the late 50s, it’s the first time they’ve appeared in English. As I was counting … Continue reading
In The Children of Noisy Village, or Alla Vi Barn I Bullerbyn to give it it’s Swedish name, Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren returns to the landscape of her childhood for a series of vignettes about a perfect childhood in a rural Swedish village. This is how Astrid remembers her childhood, ‘That beautiful environment which … Continue reading
Pippi Longstocking, as you might imagine, is the type of girl who does Christmas her way. In this short story we join her in an igloo at a special after Christmas party for the children of the little town. As ever, the irrepressible young Pirate Princess is fulfilling one of those childhood fantasies; in this … Continue reading
Pippi Longstocking is the ultimate bad girl: funny, brave, sharp, weird, outrageous. But does she really deserve a bad girl warning? I’m not sure. A better way of seeing her is as an anti-authority figure. There’s a brilliant logic and a skewed morality running through everything she does. Whether she’s giving the police the run … Continue reading
tyger tale 