Tove Jannson - Writer and illustrator
1914 - 2001


The Moomin Troll series is inspired by the work of Tove Jansson, the Finnish artist and writer who created the extraordinary world of the Moomins. She became famous in England when the London Evening News published a daily Moomins comic strip that ran from 1952-70. Books about the characters were translated into 35 languages.

The eccentric Moomin family - with its assorted foster relatives, ancestors and friends - are among the greatest creations of childrens literature. Jansson both wrote and illustrated the stories, which convey a magical world inhabited by quirky creatures with recognisable human qualities. Like all great child- rens fiction, her work appeals as much to adults.

Jansson was born into an unusual background in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. She belonged to the countrys Swedish-speaking minority, and her parents were both artists; her mother was the Swedish illustrator, Signe Hammersten Jansson, who illustrated the radical, anti-German magazine, Garm; her father was the sculptor Victor Jansson. Tove was the first of three children, and her brothers, Per Olov and Lars, became artists. Indeed, Per Olov took over the Moomin cartoon strip when Tove gave up in the 1970s.

Moomintroll, Toves central character, first emerged in Garm in 1940 as a satirical figure, evolving, slightly plumper, into the first novel (still untranslated). By the 1950s, the Moomins had taken on their familiar characteristics. They are essentially bohemian, taking in their stride the endless string of relatives, visitors and marginal wanderers who drop by to benefit from Moominmammas cooking, domestic stability and useful items in her ever-present handbag. Moominpappa, with no visible means of support, alternates between writing his memoirs and sudden whims. In Moominpappa At Sea (1965), he suddenly uproots the whole family because he feels depressed.

The characters are surprisingly complex and plausible. The central characters, Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden, in spite of shy romantic feelings, are more like siblings, and full of sexual ambiguity. Spin-off marketing in Scandinavia, where the Moomins are very popular, have coloured the characters blue and pink, though in the original drawings the only difference is a fringe.