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Books

Hiding in Moominland: the conflicted life of Tove Jansson

A review of Tove Jansson: Work and Love by Tuula Karjalainen reveals that the Moomins’ creator dreamt of living with her mother like two bears in a den

13 December 2014

9:00 AM

13 December 2014

9:00 AM

Tove Jansson: Work and Love Tuula Karjalainen

Particular Books, pp.290, £20, ISBN: 9781846148484

Tove Jansson’s father was a sculptor specialising in war memorials to the heroes of the White Guard of the Finnish civil war. He did not like women. They were too noisy, wore large hats at the cinema and would not obey orders in wartime. Tove used to hide to spy on his all-male parties, where everybody got astoundingly drunk and attacked chairs with bayonets.

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