The Latest Breaking News from Moomin

The author on his secret theories about Tolkien, the most perfect and terrifying Moomin book, and how his father, John le Carré, inspired him

Back in May the team behind Something Good threw a birthday party for the Moomins. Created by Finish artist Tove Jansson, these whimsical, hippo-like creatures have now been delighting children and adults alike for 80 years. And in this time of profound global refugee crisis, they feel like appropriate –…

There is a world beyond our own, where imagination and reality meet, and where, for 80 years, Tove Jansson’s Moomins illustrations have offered readers a way to recognise themselves.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of The Moomins, the Finnish/Swedish trolls that have delighted generations of children, becoming a cultural phenomenon in their own right. While posterity will likely remember her as the inventor of Moomins, Tove Jansson was in fact a strikingly multi-talented creative force.

In 1989, the science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin published The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. In it, she notes that many stories depend heavily on a hero with a sword or weapon as a central object, while bags seem boring and insignificant.

Tove Jansson published her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, 80 years ago, in 1945. The story follows a family of hippo-like creatures called “Moomintrolls”, who become refugees after a flood washes away their home. Written at the end of the second world war, when millions were…

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the first Moomin tale, The Moomins and the Great Flood. In the book, Moomintroll and his friends embark on a journey to find their home after a great flood devastates Moominvalley, meeting odd creatures and new friends along their journey.

Tove Jansson’s beloved creations have their hibernation interrupted by snowball juggling and jolly ukulele tunes in this sweet adaptation

Paradise exhibition focuses on public works for factory walls, hospitals and nurseries – long before Moominmania took hold