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In the bitter winds of autumn 1963, Tove Jansson, helped by Brunström, a maverick fisherman, raced to build a cabin on a treeless skerry in the Gulf of Finland. The island was Klovharun, and for thirty summers Tove and her beloved partner, the graphic artist, Tuulikki Pietilä, retreated there to live, paint and write, energised by the solitude and shifting seascapes. Notes from an Island, published in English for the first time, is both a chronicle of this period and a homage to the mature love that Tove and 'Tooti' shared for their island and for each other. Tove's spare prose, and Tuulikki's subtle washes and aquatints combine to form a work of meditative beauty. '... Tooti wandered aimlessly around the island and stood stock still for long periods. I thought I knew what she was doing. She was working again. Copperplate etchings and wash drawings. Mostly the lagoon, the lagoon as a consummate mirror for clouds and birds, the lagoon in a storm, in fog. And the granite, first and foremost, the granite, the cliff, the rocks. It's all peace and quiet now.'
Stories From Moominvalley is a beautiful collection of three classic
Moomin stories, based on Tove Jansson’s original works.
When signs appear that a comet is heading towards their beloved Moominvalley, Moomin and his friend Sniff set sail to consult with the professors in the distant Lonely Mountains. Their journey is full of adventures and narrow escapes; from crocodiles, giant lizards, eagles and the like, but new friends - soon to become firm friends - help lighten the way. In this first and most exciting Moomin novel, we meet the wandering Snufkin, the fascinating Snork Maiden and her brother the Snork as they join Moomin in his race to get home to Moominmamma before the comet crashes.
When a grumbling volcano causes Moominvalley to flood, the Moomins escape by boat, finding refuge on a floating theatre. Adventures abound when the theatre casts adrift leaving Moomin,The Snorkmaiden and Little My marooned. Will they all be reunited before the final curtain?
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?
Who of us could not confess to liking food, sleeping and things that shine - at least sometimes? Or dream about becoming rich? This is also true of Sniff, who is fundamentally sweet-natured and who willingly participates in everything, so long as it isn't too dangerous or tiring. This book contains many funny insights as well as support for all those in whom there lurks a little Sniff.
In case you didn't know, the Moomins are kind, loyal and welcoming creatures with smooth round snouts, who live in a tall blue house shaped like an old stove in a valley in the forests of Finland. They love sunshine and sleep right through the winter, when the snow turns their house into a great snowball. In spring they wake up, clamber down the rope ladders hanging from their windows ready for fresh new adventures. And so this classic story begins, full of fun and excitement and the most unexpected happenings. Such as when Moomin and his friends Snufkin and Sniff find a Hobgoblin's hat that casts a spell over the whole of Moominvalley...
A Fabulous Find from the Moomin Archives A classic Moomin Book with COLOUR ILLUSTRATIONS And a beautiful FOLD-OUT PANORAMA In 1961, at the request of her Italian publishers, Tove Jansson created a unique new edition of Moominland Midwinter, the tale in which Moomin wakes from hibernation to contend alone with the mysterious world of winter. The text and internal line drawings of this much loved story were unchanged, but Tove added a beautiful new cover illustration and seven glorious full-page colour illustrations. This was the only Moomin title that she illustrated in colour and it has long been a prized item for collectors. For the first time, it is available in English. For this new Sort Of edition, Tove's nephew James Zambra restored the original cover and colour illustrations, along with a glorious fold-out panorama of characters from the book, which Tove Jansson painted for the first French edition. Sort Of Books have also added a back cover designed for the first Swedish edition of Moominland Midwinter, an image used on the first Puffin book, and a playful bookplate 'wreath' from the first German book. We believe this is the most beautiful Moomin book ever published!
In the bitter winds of autumn 1963, Tove Jansson, helped by Brunstroem, a maverick fisherman, raced to build a cabin on a treeless skerry in the Gulf of Finland. The island was Klovharun, and for thirty summers Tove and her beloved partner, the graphic artist, Tuulikki Pietila, retreated there to live, paint and write, energised by the solitude and shifting seascapes. Notes from an Island, published in English for the first time, is both a chronicle of this period and a homage to the mature love that Tove and 'Tooti' shared for their island and for each other. Tove's spare prose, and Tuulikki's subtle washes and aquatints combine to form a work of meditative beauty. '... Tooti wandered aimlessly around the island and stood stock still for long periods. I thought I knew what she was doing. She was working again. Copperplate etchings and wash drawings. Mostly the lagoon, the lagoon as a consummate mirror for clouds and birds, the lagoon in a storm, in fog. And the granite, first and foremost, the granite, the cliff, the rocks. It's all peace and quiet now.'
"One cold and windy autumn evening many years ago a newspaper parcel was found on the doorstep of the Home for Moomin Foundlings. In that parcel I lay, quite small and shivering with cold." So begins the remarkable Memoirs of Moominpappa, a book written to delight his dear son Moomintroll and friends. What follows is a story about storytelling itself. Moominpappa weaves one fabulous tale after another, writing at night to read aloud by day and featuring not only the fearless, adventurous author but also the fathers of Sniff and Snufkin - the rather muddled Muddler and the carefree Joxter. Add to this mix the genius inventor Hodgkins and a grand finale in which Moominpappa rescues a shipwrecked Moominmamma from the waves and the fun becomes irresistible. The Memoirs of Moominpappa, was first published in the UK in 1950 under the title, The Exploits of Moominpapa. In the early 1960s Tove Jansson substantially revised this text, redrawing pictures and reinstating her preferred title. This is the very first time the revised edition has become available in the UK.
In her last, most profound and poignant Moomin story, Jansson explores themes of loss, legacy and hope. The Moomins have left their beloved Moominvalley but as winter draws near Snufkin, Mymble, Toft and others move into the Moominhouse to await the family's return. Could that gentle flicker of light on the horizon be their boat?
Featuring the much loved stories in Waterstone's Oxfam bestseller, The Invisible Child and The Fir Tree - the Moomins' gloriously funny and generous take on Christmas - Tales from Moominvalley collects together nine delightful Moomin short stories. Highlights include The Spring Tune (which Jarvis Cocker described as the best story about composing music) and The Last Dragon in the World, revealing the true essence of friendship. A perfect Christmas gift to complete the set of Moomin classics.
If you haven't met a Moomin yet, you're missing the most magical fun . . . Join Moomintroll and his friends in this brand new picture book based on the original stories by Tove Jansson. On a windy day in Moominvalley a frightened forest creature comes tap-tapping on the door of the Moominhouse. Little My is less than impressed when Moominmamma suggests the new guest could sleep in the spare bunk in her room. But Little My soon learns that a friend in need is a friend indeed . . . A gorgeous, brightly illustrated story about community and looking out for one another. More beautiful Moomin books: My First Moomin: Goodnight Moomin Moomin and the Wishing Star Moomin and the Birthday Button Moomin: The Very BIG Moominhouse Lift-the-Flap Book
'Beautifully crafted and deceptively simple-seeming, these stories are like pieces of scattered light.' Ali Smith Following the widely acclaimed and bestselling The Summer Book, here is A Winter Book collection of some of Tove Jansson's best loved and most famous stories. Drawn from youth and older age, and spanning most of the twentieth century, this newly translated selection provides a thrilling showcase of the great Finnish writer's prose, scattered with insights and home truths. It has been selected and is introduced by Ali Smith. A Winter Book features 13 stories from Tove Jansson's first book for adults, The Sculptor's Daughter (1968) plus seven of her most cherished later stories (from 1971 to 1996), translated into English and published here for the first time.
Moominpappa's Book of Thoughts is a collection of philosophical anecdotes and other profound insights from the most senior Moomin, providing readers with an essential roadmap on how to go about life. During his long and eventful life, Moominpappa has had a knack of coming out with funny as well as profound thoughts, both in good times and bad.
"I find myself talking to you about all the great joys, all the agonies, all my thoughts..." - Letter to Eva Konikova, 1946 Out of the thousands of letters Tove Jansson wrote a cache remains that she addressed to her family, her dearest confidantes, and her lovers, male and female. Into these she spilled her innermost thoughts, defended her ideals and revealed her heart. To read these letters is both an act of startling intimacy and a rare privilege. Penned with grace and humour, Letters from Tove offers an almost seamless commentary on Tove Jansson's life as it unfolds within Helsinki's bohemian circles and her island home. Spanning fifty years between her art studies and the height of Moomin fame, we share with her the bleakness of war; the hopes for love that were dashed and renewed, and her determined attempts to establish herself as an artist. Vivid, inspiring and shining with integrity, Letters from Tove shows precisely how an aspiring and courageous young artist can evolve into a very great one.
"Leave" Moominvalley? Is it possible? Yes, even the Moomin family need a change of scenery sometimes, so they're off to live in a lighthouse on a tiny island. Here they find space to grow, and to do things they couldn't in their comfortable, cluttered valley home. As they discover their new home, the family also discover surprising, and wonderfully funny, new things about themselves.
Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories have been continually in print for more than half a century, in 35 languages. They are among Europe's best loved and enduring children's classics, and through the TV animation (BBC2), the warm-hearted, whimsical creatures of Moomin valley have been brought to a new younger British audience. Introducing the first Sort Of Children's Classic in a new English version by Sophie Hannah. Sort of Books proudly presents the original full colour Moomin picture book with its irresistible cut-out page designs and playful rhyming text in a new version by one of Britain's star poets.
"So what can happen when Tove Jansson turns her attention to her own favourite subjects, love and work, in the form of this novel about two women, lifelong partners and friends? Expect something philosophically calm - and discreetly radical. Its publication is cause for huge celebration."(Ali Smith, from her Introduction to Fair Play) What mattered most to Tove Jansson, she explained in her eighties, was work and love, a sentiment she echoes in this tender and original novel. Translated for the first time into English, Fair Play portrays a love between two older women, a writer and artist, as they work side-by-side in their Helsinki studios, travel together and share summers on a remote island. In the generosity and respect they show each other and the many small shifts they make to accommodate each other's creativity we are shown a relationship both heartening and truly progressive.
Celebrating 50 years of Tove Jansson's classic, bestselling novel 'Distils the essence of summer' Robert Macfarlane 'Magical, life-affirming' Elizabeth Gilbert The Worldwide Classic about a tiny island and larger love. An elderly artist and her six-year-old grand-daughter while away a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. As the two learn to adjust to each other's fears, whims and yearnings, a fierce yet understated love emerges - one that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the very island itself. Written in a clear, unsentimental style, full of brusque humour, and wisdom, The Summer Book is a profoundly life-affirming story. Tove Jansson captured much of her own life and spirit in the book, which was her favourite of her adult novels. With a foreword by Esther Freud and an afterword by Sophia Jansson (on whom the child 'Sophia' is based) who returns to the island during the pandemic at the point of becoming a grandmother herself. Includes a 15pp epilogue by Tove's niece Sophia Jansson - the inspiration for 'Sophia' - on a personal and moving return to the island. 'Eccentric, funny, wise, full of joys and small adventures. This is a book for life.' Esther Freud 'Tove Jansson was a genius. This is a marvellous, beautiful, wise novel, which is also very funny.' Philip Pullman
A little girl is transported with the help of magic glasses from the tedium of a summer afternoon into an exciting world of mangrove swamps, spluttering volcanoes and sea where birds fly upside down and wild things threaten to pounce. But she is not alone. Old friends from Moomin Valley - Hemulen, Sniff, Snufkin, Thingummy & Bob - have joined her on the journey, and Moomin too, who rides to their rescue in a stripey balloon. This brand new version of a 'lost classic' pairs Jansson's irresistible artwork with a playful rhyming text by one of Britain's star poets.
A beautiful picture book with a textured cover and new colour illustrations, The Last Dragon in Moominvalley is the perfect gift for Moomin fans of all ages. When Moomintroll finds a tiny dragon, he puts it in a jam jar to keep it as a pet. He's so excited to have found the very last dragon in the world! But Moomintroll soon realises that the dragon wants to be free. And when the dragon seems to prefer Snufkin, will Moomintroll's heart be broken? This stunning picture book is a newly-illustrated retelling of Tove Jansson's classic Moomin short story The Last Dragon, originally published in Tales from Moominvalley 60 years ago and now reinterpreted for a new generation of Moomin fans.
In the deep winter snows of a Swedish hamlet, a strange young woman fakes a break-in at the house of an elderly artist in order to persuade her that she needs companionship. But what does she hope to gain by doing this? And who ultimately is deceiving whom? In this portrayal of two women grappling with truth and lies, nothing can be taken for granted. By the time the snow thaws, both their lives will have changed irrevocably. |
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