PHOTO MOOMIN CHARACTERS
For the past seven decades, a family of Finnish trolls have captured the hearts of children and adults the world over. With their protruding bellies and penchant for adventure, these fairytale creatures have become firm favourites on our bookshelves, loved as much for their cheerful nature as their tight-knit family values. They are, of course, the Moomins.
Few could have foreseen that the pen and ink illustrations sketched during the tail end of a bleak war would inspire a global phenomenon, not least for their creator, the artist, writer and illustrator Tove Jansson. The idea was born one summer’s day in the 1930s, when the teenage Jansson was discussing philosophy with her brother Per Olov by their cottage in Pellinki. The siblings got into a disagreement about Immanuel Kant; and in a fit of irritation she drew the ugliest creature she could imagine on the outhouse’s wall.