‘The smaller you are, the bigger Christmas is.’ Tove Jansson’s present tense recollections of her childhood Christmases, first collected in her memoir Sculptor’s Daughter, contain the same combination of pragmatism and fantasy that runs through the Moomin stories. But where her trolls feared the coming of the spruce in her story The Fir Tree, young … 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
The Moomins aren’t a naturally Christmassy species. They prefer to spend their winters tucked behind an old boiler, or huddled together in their drawing room. You wouldn’t have thought the irascible Hemulens would have much truck with the celebration either, other than to give them something else to get cross about. But in The Fir … Continue reading
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you can’t have missed Luke Pearson’s intrepid beret wearing adventuress Hilda – although under a rock is exactly where you’ll find Hilda in her new book, which takes us deep inside the mountains near her home, a vast networks of tunnels and caves … Continue reading
Having found out how author Abi Elphinstone uses map making as a creative aid earlier in the month, I wanted to ask the illustrator of her books, Thomas Flintham about the process of turning a writer’s imagined worlds into a piece of art. Here he talks about his work on the ‘Last Wild’ series by Piers Torday. 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
Judging by the two picture books she has created for the über cool indie publisher Flying Eye, Rilla Alexander knows more than most about books to save your life. Her first, the boldly titled The Best Book in the World explores the incredible benefits of living a life spent with with your nose buried in … Continue reading
Tove Jansson knew a thing or two about merchandising. Like a one woman Nordic Disney she was, as early as the mid 50s selling handkerchiefs, piggy banks, dustbins, suspenders and marzipan Moomins. Although she did stop short of allowing a line of sanitary towels for young girls – the company wanted to brand them ‘Little … Continue reading
The Moomins and I have been on our holidays. Not on the Riviera, but to Cornwall and the Eden Project. Paper Moomintroll, Little My, Snuffkin and the Hattifatteners travelled with us from the sunflower soaked fields of southern France to the bountiful rain forests of Malaysia, before encountering their ‘ancestors’ in deepest Africa. Tove Jansson … Continue reading
K is for the island of Klovharu. Tove Jansson would have been 100 this week, an event that provoked a huge outpouring of affection. Much of this has to do, of course, with her timeless Moomin stories, but there’s another part of her life, an idea, that has proven to be just as enticing to … 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
‘Tell me something, are you one of those people who is prevented from doing great art because they draw comic strips?’ In 1978 Tove Jansson published a short story called The Cartoonist. It deals with a young artist who gets a job at a newspaper drawing a long running comic strip about a round, blue … Continue reading
Here begins the year of Tove Jansson. 100 years since her birth, The Egg theatre in Bath bring us the UK’s very first staging of one of her Moomin stories (ridiculous!). The year also sees their first original motion picture outing in Moomins on the Riviera and a stage musical of Moominsummer Madness. But I’ll … Continue reading
SO here we are again. Last year’s advent blog, which I had conceived imagining myself sitting by the Christmas tree, whisky in one hand, iPad in the other while the children sang carols in the background, turned into a bleary eyed marathon. Apparently there was other stuff that needed doing for Christmas. Who knew? This … Continue reading
The Moomins aren’t a naturally Christmassy species. They prefer to spend their winters tucked behind an old boiler, or huddled together in their drawing room. You wouldn’t have thought the irascible Hemulens would have much truck with the celebration either, other than to give them something else to get cross about. But in The … Continue reading
