The first of the Moomins was drawn on the wall of an outhouse, next to a stable, by a 14-year-old teenager who was bickering with her little brother. Since the age of 7, she had spent her summers in a red-painted cottage owned by a shipbuilder and his family on the island of Storpellinge in Finland’s 200-story Pellinge archipelago.
This young girl, Tove Jansson, has become one of the most renowned authors in the country, and the island where she drew her first Moomin [un personnage semblable à un hippopotame, futur héros d’une série de livres illustrés pour enfants, disponible en français] is immortalized in his novel The Book of a Summer, which turns 50 in 2022. I’ve reread this book every year since I bought it ten years ago, and I’m far from the only one fascinated by it. I went to Storpellinge to explore this literary universe that I love so much and to see to what extent it has survived.
A classic of Scandinavian literature
This novel consists of a collection of snapshots describing the relationship between a grandmother and her 6-year-old granddaughter, during their summer on a rocky island. More or less inspired by the bonds between her mother and her niece Sophia, as well as by her childhood memories, Tove Jansson set the plot on her family’s private island – Bredskar – and on the Storpellinge. The result is a Scandinavian classic that has been translated into 55 languages [en français, il est disponible au Livre de Poche]. In Finland, this opus is so popular that the new anniversary edition was sold out even before the launch party.
Fifty years. In other words, a lifetime. In 1972, the Vietnam War was at its height; [la chanteuse américaine] Roberta Flack topped the charts ; Billie Jean King ruled the tennis courts. Things have changed a lot: Tove Jansson died in 2001 and it was her niece Sophia’s turn to have a granddaughter. Some things seem unchanging though on the bumpy, pine-lined dirt roads at Storpellinge, which is an hour and a half by car and five minutes by ferry to the east.
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The Times (London)The oldest of the British dailies (1785) and the best known abroad has belonged since 1981 to Rupert Murdoch. It has long been the reference newspaper and the voice of the establishment. Today, it has lost some of its influence and gossip accuses it of reflecting the conservative ideas of its owner. The Times switched to tabloid format in 2004.
Determined to no longer provide all its content for free, the British daily inaugurated in June 2010 a paid formula which obliges Internet users to subscribe to have access to its articles. Four months after the launch of the operation, the newspaper publishes the first results eagerly awaited by other press players: 105,000 people have become customers of its electronic offers. Among them, about half are regular subscribers to the various versions offered [site Internet, iPad et Kindle]. The others are occasional buyers. These figures, deemed satisfactory by the management of the Times should encourage other newspapers to accelerate their march towards paid access.
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