She’s the mischievous little red-haired Swedish girl with the pigtails. Since 1945, this waif with no mother or father has rarely been out of the bestseller lists and continues to inspire musicals and movies. Heyday Films, the outfit behind Paddington and James Bond, is now developing an English-language adaptation of her stories.
What isn’t generally known outside her native Sweden are the circumstances in which author Astrid Lindgren created Pippi during the darkest period of the second world war, under the shadow of Hitler and Stalin.
