Moominpappa yearns to make a fresh start, to find a rocky island and lighthouse where he'll feel alert and important again. And so the Moomins set sail for a new home. Moominpappa's longed-for-island proves as mysterious and wild and he'd hoped. It even has a deserted lighthouse. But how is Moominmamma to grow her flowers and what could have happened to the last keeper of the lighthouse?
'I love these editions - so beautifully produced, so solid and permanent, just as Tove Jansson deserved' - Philip Pullman
'Tove Jansson is one of the greatest children's writers there has ever been' - Sir Terry Pratchett
'[These editions] are simply stunning, and an absolute must-read. The Moomin novels are timeless stories full of adventure and heartwarming values - perfect for Christmas.' - The Bookseller
Author
About Tove Jansson
Tove Jansson (1914 – 2001), was born in 1914 in Helingsfors, Finland. Her mother was a charicaturist and the designer of many of Finland’s stamps, and her father was a sculptor. Tove studied painting in Finland, Sweden and France and later worked as a book illustrator, a designer and strip cartoonist, as well as being involved in theatre décor and making frescoes in public places. She drew her first Moomin in the 1930s, just for fun, to tease her little brother by drawing the ugliest creature she could think of. Moomin developed a nicer snout and character and in 1939 he became a character in a children’s story. The Finn Family Moomingtroll has been a hugely successful book, translated into many languages – many other Moomin stories followed.
In 1966 Tove Jansson was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal – an international award for the best children’s book of the year.
Most of the books were written on a small island in the Gulf of Finland where Tove, her mother and brother were the only inhabitants. Later Tove continued to live alone on the island - It takes an hour to row to the nearest island. Some years ago she wrote of the island:
‘It is so small you can walk around it in ten minutes. It is shaped like an atoll and surrounds a deep lake which in good weather makes a fine swimming pool, but in bad weather turns into a raging torrent surrounded by waterfalls. Then our boat has to be pulled right up to the house and tied to the veranda. We only have one tree, a rowan, which bloomed for the first time last summer. But we plant wild roses in the crevices, and potatoes. And we fish. We use rainwater for our coffee and driftwood for our fires. My favourite weather is fog, when the island seems to be afloat at the very end of the world in perfect silence and solitude. Only rarely does one hear the foghorns from the open sea where big ships go by for foreign countries.’
In this very special, beautiful and challenging environment Tove’s imagination and artistic talent flourished.
