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.

Join Moomintroll, his charming family and his eclectic band of friends on a series of adventures in a picturesque land where anything can happen: a father can be washed away in a flood, electric Hattifatteners can appear on a desert island, and a hat with magical powers can transform a house into a jungle! Moomin lovers of all ages will delight at the stunning artwork that accompanies the lively, witty writing, and become fully immersed in the beautiful Moominvalley.

Sensitively adapted for a younger audience by Alex Haridi and Cecilia Davidsson, Stories From Moominvalley is both perfect as a gift and is a must-have for fans of Tove Jansson’s enchanting world.

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...

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.

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.

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?

"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.

'It's the most wonderful valley in the world.' - Moomintroll Step into the magical world of Moominvalley with this beautiful and unique book; a fun, fascinating and unprecedented look at the wonderful world of the Moomins and their creator, Tove Jansson. Filled with illustrated maps and family trees, facts about Moomintroll behaviour and habits, this book contains all you could wish to know about the beloved characters from the original Moomin stories and the world in which they live. Find out all about Moomintroll's adventures, Moominmamma's handbag and Moominpappa's diary and meet the extended Moomin family including Snork Maiden, Snufkin, Sniff and Little My. This book also takes you behind the studio door of the uniquely talented, Tove Jansson. Featuring original Moomin drawings, colour studies and stunning character sketches as well as family photographs and Tove's childhood drawings. Written by award-winning children's author Philip Ardagh with contributions from best-selling children's author, screenwriter and Moomin devotee, Frank Cottrell Boyce, The Moomins: The World of Moominvalley is a highly illustrated, beautifully designed gift book for all Moomin fans to treasure.

Now that autumn is turning into winter, a group of unlikely friends--including the Fillyjonk, the Hemulen, and Toft--are waiting in Moominvalley to see the Moomins, for winter doesn't seem right without them. But the Moomins are not at home. So all the visitors settle down to await their return, and oddly enough find themselves warming up to their new life together. For Moominvalley is Moominvalley still, even without the Moomins in it.

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?

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!

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.

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.'

"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.

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.

Moomins always sleep through the winter while the snow settles all around them, waking up in time for spring and the arrival of Snufkin and other friends. Or they did until one year when Moomintroll happened to wake up and find himself all alone in a sleepy, dusty house in a silent, snow-covered valley. In this moving story of a small, brave Moomin finding his way in the mysterious world of winter we discover that there are always new friends to be found - like the calm and wise Too-ticky and the irrepressible Little My - and new ways to play and be kind.

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.

"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.

Colour your way through the year with this stunning, diary edition of the bestselling The Moomin Colouring Book. Perfect for recording your thoughts and activities, with inspiring quotes and moments of Moomin wisdom to guide you through even the bleakest months. The Moomin Colouring Diary is full of beautiful illustrations of Tove Jansson's beloved characters to colour in. This is a stylish and portable diary, featuring artwork from the coveted archive of Moomin creator, Tove Jansson.

Created in 1945, yet published in this country for the very first time, The Moomins and the Great Flood offers an extraordinary glimpse into the creativity and imagination that launched the Moomin books. Moominmamma and young Moomintroll search for the long lost Moominpappa through forest and flood, meeting a little creature (an early Sniff) and the elegantly strange Tulippa along the way. Tove Jansson illustrates her first ever Moomin adventure with stunning sepia watercolour and delightful pen and ink drawings. A revelation for Moomin fans. Other Moomin picture books include The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My [9780955352743], Who Will Comfort Toffle? [9780953522798] and The Dangerous Journey [9780954899592].

This newly translated collection of stories brilliantly evokes the shifting scenes and restlessness of summer. A professor arrives in a beautiful Spanish village only to find that her host has left and she must cope with fractious neighbours alone; a holiday on a Finnish Island is thrown into disarray when a disconcerting young boy arrives; an artist returns to an old flat to discover that her life has been eerily usurped. Philosophical and profound, but with the deceptive lightness that is her hallmark, Travelling Light is guaranteed to surprise and transport.

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.