Finnish, Swedish writer and painter

Tove Jansson was a Finnish-Swedish writer and painter. She belonged to an important group of Swedish-writing authors in Finland. She herself came from an artistic family: her father Viktor was a well-known sculptor and her mother Signe was an illustrator. The bohemian lifestyle and the slightly anarchic individualism of her family background profoundly influenced her life path. After studying in Stockholm, Helsinki and later Paris, Jansson gradually gained recognition as a painter and printmaker.

She became known around the world primarily as the author of a series of children's stories about the strange Moomin goblins. The Moomins bear no resemblance to the Scandinavian troll goblins, but they are good-hearted, full of humour and insight. Their world is also popular with adults; it is often compared to Alice in Wonderland. Tales of the Moomin goblins have been adapted as a cartoon series for television and even as an opera.