0:00:07 > 0:00:09Finland is the home of the Moomins.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13The Moomins are the peace-loving,
0:00:13 > 0:00:16philosophical family of Moominpappa,
0:00:16 > 0:00:18Moominmamma,
0:00:18 > 0:00:20and their son Moomintroll.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25Conceived in the 1940s as a series of children's books,
0:00:25 > 0:00:28the Moomins are now a global phenomenon...
0:00:31 > 0:00:33..making their creator, Tove Jansson,
0:00:33 > 0:00:37one of the most successful children's authors of all time.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45And yet she remains eclipsed by the success of her work.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48She is known, if at all, for her supposed
0:00:48 > 0:00:52hermit-like existence on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland
0:00:52 > 0:00:56and not for the lyrical adult fiction she wrote there,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59nor the career as a painter she pursued so ardently
0:00:59 > 0:01:01throughout her life.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08Like her work, Tove Jansson's own story has many other sides
0:01:08 > 0:01:10and transformations.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14From her birth in 1914 to her death in 2001,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17her life was as colourful, complex
0:01:17 > 0:01:21and as stormy as her greatest creations.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31# Don't know why
0:01:31 > 0:01:34# There's no sun up in the sky
0:01:34 > 0:01:37# Stormy weather
0:01:37 > 0:01:43# Since my man and I ain't together
0:01:45 > 0:01:50# Keeps raining all the time
0:01:53 > 0:01:56# Life is bare
0:01:56 > 0:01:59# Gloom and misery everywhere
0:01:59 > 0:02:01# Stormy weather
0:02:01 > 0:02:08# Keeps raining all the time... #
0:02:13 > 0:02:16Well, she was quite small and very gracious.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20Thin and little, like a ballet dancer.
0:02:20 > 0:02:22Even when she was really old.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25She had an amazing ability
0:02:25 > 0:02:30to acknowledge every person's presence
0:02:30 > 0:02:32and be interested.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35She was very friendly,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37but she could also hold back when she didn't want to answer.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45Inspired by her love of animals, nature
0:02:45 > 0:02:48and the changing seasons, Tove Jansson charted
0:02:48 > 0:02:51the adventures of the tightly-knit Moomin family
0:02:51 > 0:02:53and their eclectic collection of friends
0:02:53 > 0:02:55across a series of eight books.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00The Moomins live in Finland, somewhere where
0:03:00 > 0:03:03it's so cold in the winter they have to hibernate.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08The Moomin family consists of Moominpappa, with his top hat,
0:03:08 > 0:03:10with his love of sailing.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15Moomintroll is very eager, very curious
0:03:15 > 0:03:18and he's very attached to his mother.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Moominmamma has this big handbag, like Mrs Thatcher,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24and the handbag's got everything in it.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26I mean, everything is in that handbag.
0:03:28 > 0:03:33I think that this concept of family really is very crucial
0:03:33 > 0:03:35for the success of the books.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40But it's not really just this three Moomin unit,
0:03:40 > 0:03:42because it's an extended family.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44We have Snufkin.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48And he's the character that you want to be when you're a kid, I think.
0:03:48 > 0:03:49You want to be Snufkin.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52I definitely wanted to be Snufkin and then woke up one day
0:03:52 > 0:03:54and found myself Moominpappa.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Hemulens generally wear dresses, which is why they curtsy, not bow.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07They're generally obsessed with collecting things,
0:04:07 > 0:04:11whether it be stamps or plants or butterflies.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15And then there's Little My, who's this very ferocious little creature,
0:04:15 > 0:04:18very tiny, lives in the cutlery drawer.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21And she's disgraceful, she has no respect for anything
0:04:21 > 0:04:23and she'll kick and she'll be incredibly rude
0:04:23 > 0:04:27and say all those things you wish you could say yourself.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31There are characters in those books who kind of set your teeth on edge,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34Fillyjonk and loud Hemulens and stuff,
0:04:34 > 0:04:36but you learn that they have their reasons.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38And you learn that they have their uses as well.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40That's even more important, really.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45I would say that if she had one big theme, it would be tolerance.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50While the Moomins lived together in easy harmony,
0:04:50 > 0:04:54Tove Jansson's family dynamic was more complicated.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58They were close as a family,
0:04:58 > 0:05:02yet they all were active separately
0:05:02 > 0:05:05and they gave each other space
0:05:05 > 0:05:07to be themselves.
0:05:08 > 0:05:13Tove Jansson and her two younger brothers, Per Olov and Lars,
0:05:13 > 0:05:18grew up in a crowded artist's studio in the country's capital, Helsinki.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27The city provided an eclectic mix of architectural styles,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30cultures and languages.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35Her own family were part of a minority of Swedish-speaking Finns
0:05:35 > 0:05:39who lived alongside the majority of Finnish speakers.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48Her father, Viktor,
0:05:48 > 0:05:50worked as a sculptor in the classical tradition.
0:05:52 > 0:05:53My father was a sculptor.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58His main theme for many years
0:05:58 > 0:06:00was the female form.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03And Tove was his favourite model.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09Father loved big storms
0:06:09 > 0:06:13and he loved fires.
0:06:13 > 0:06:17If there was a fire somewhere in Helsinki
0:06:17 > 0:06:23and Father saw smoke rolling above the ceilings,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27then he gathered his children and went fire-hunting.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Moominpappa, of course, was Father,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34loving storms and adventures.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39The family could not always rely on their father's commissions
0:06:39 > 0:06:42to put food on the table.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45To ensure a steady income, their mother, Signe Hammarsten,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47otherwise known as Ham,
0:06:47 > 0:06:50worked as a graphic artist for hire.
0:06:51 > 0:06:54Mother sat working at her table,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56Tove beside her.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59And Tove had pen and paper
0:06:59 > 0:07:02and Tove looked at what Mother was doing
0:07:02 > 0:07:04and then she made her own drawing.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Tove Jansson showed artistic promise
0:07:07 > 0:07:10almost as soon as she could hold a pen.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Tove developed her drawing technique
0:07:14 > 0:07:17when she saw Mother creating
0:07:17 > 0:07:23postage stamps with narrow black lines on white paper.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27She has described
0:07:27 > 0:07:29that the safest place in the world
0:07:29 > 0:07:31is inside your mother's tummy.
0:07:31 > 0:07:35So there's sort of a little world of their own
0:07:35 > 0:07:37where no-one else can come in.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43Mother was the typical Moominmamma,
0:07:43 > 0:07:47staying at home and preparing a good meal for her family.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52Serene at all times.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Nothing could shake her.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01Not only were Viktor Jansson's commissions unreliable,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04but also his moods, which his family attributed to trauma
0:08:04 > 0:08:09he'd suffered as a soldier during the Finnish civil war of 1918.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15Tove Jansson would reflect on this in her writing decades later.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17"Dad became gloomier and gloomier
0:08:17 > 0:08:20"until he finally stopped talking altogether.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24"One morning, he didn't even go out fishing.
0:08:24 > 0:08:29"He simply lay in bed, staring at the ceiling with his lips clenched."
0:08:29 > 0:08:34Father started drinking too much,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37then he became unfaithful.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44Mother never showed anything.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Tove, naturally, knew much more
0:08:50 > 0:08:54about the trouble between Mother and Father...
0:08:56 > 0:08:59..and she sided with Mother.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05She sublimated her own difficulties
0:09:05 > 0:09:09by transferring them to the Moomin figures.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16She was unable to show anger,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19but Little My did.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24And Snufkin could just walk away from it
0:09:24 > 0:09:26and Tove couldn't.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31Like many Finns, the Janssons would leave
0:09:31 > 0:09:34their cramped city dwelling each summer
0:09:34 > 0:09:35and head for the open sea.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40The Nordic landscape in the Gulf of Finland,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42which Tove Jansson explored as a child,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45would later seep into her fiction,
0:09:45 > 0:09:49appearing as the lush valleys and unexplored coastlines of Moominland.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56They liked it so much there that then they came back every summer,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59to the extent that now everybody else in the family
0:09:59 > 0:10:03has also spent their summers in this same spot.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07It becomes a really important place
0:10:07 > 0:10:10and it is a really important place for us.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12It's still quite a long way,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15but it's obviously much easier than it used to be.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Today, what we do is we drive
0:10:18 > 0:10:24to a town about 50 kilometres to the east of Helsinki
0:10:24 > 0:10:26called Borga, or Porvoo in Finnish.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Like the Jansson family, the people of Porvoo
0:10:30 > 0:10:33were traditionally Swedish-speaking Finns.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37It used to be predominately Swedish-speaking,
0:10:37 > 0:10:40but today...
0:10:40 > 0:10:45hardly any cities in Finland are Swedish-speaking anymore.
0:10:49 > 0:10:56And then from there you go on to a place called Tirmo...
0:10:58 > 0:11:03..and when you get to Tirmo there's a ferry and you have to wait.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13And then the ferry ferries you over to a set of islands.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15They go by the name of Pellinge.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22The road continues over bridges
0:11:22 > 0:11:27and eventually you get to where the Gustafssons live.
0:11:27 > 0:11:31The Gustafssons rented their house to the Janssons most summers
0:11:31 > 0:11:33throughout Tove's childhood.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42The two families have remained friends for over four generations.
0:11:45 > 0:11:46Hey, hey!
0:11:49 > 0:11:52When the Jansson family started coming here, they had to make
0:11:52 > 0:11:55the whole journey from Helsinki to these islands by boat.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58Once at the Gustafssons' house,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02the Janssons would sleep together in one room throughout the summer.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45Ja, ja.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49It was here that the young Tove,
0:12:49 > 0:12:53already an accomplished cartoonist, amused her little brothers
0:12:53 > 0:12:57by scribbling her first Moomin on the wall of the outside loo.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02It was not long before Moomin was out of the water closet
0:13:02 > 0:13:06and onto the pages of the Swedish language press.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Tove's formidable talent for caricature had caught
0:13:10 > 0:13:13the eye of Garm, a satirical magazine which commissioned
0:13:13 > 0:13:16drawings from her before she'd even left school.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21The early version of Moomin she drew in Garm
0:13:21 > 0:13:23was known as the Snork.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26And this is the first picture where
0:13:26 > 0:13:28you can see the actual Snork.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30But it doesn't very much resemble
0:13:30 > 0:13:32the Moomin we know today,
0:13:32 > 0:13:35which is very round and soft and wonderful and kind.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39This is more like a nightmare Moomin.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43And the picture is depicting the person's nightmares
0:13:43 > 0:13:47when he's very drunk and coming home very late.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51And the joke in this picture is that the gentleman is saying,
0:13:51 > 0:13:53"Well, it must have been a very cold night
0:13:53 > 0:13:56"because all the ground is frozen."
0:13:56 > 0:13:59And he's stepping on glass on the way to his home.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06Although Tove Jansson had been a recognised
0:14:06 > 0:14:08graphic artist from as young as 14,
0:14:08 > 0:14:12she knew that her passion lay with painting and fine art.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16In 1933, she enrolled in the fine art course
0:14:16 > 0:14:18at Helsinki's Ateneum.
0:14:19 > 0:14:21When Tove was born,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24the father said that he hoped
0:14:24 > 0:14:26their daughter would be an artist.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30And that was a very important thing for Tove, for all her life.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32Almost immediately,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35she would encounter the first barriers to her ambition.
0:14:35 > 0:14:38She thought that the teaching
0:14:38 > 0:14:41and teachers were boring, and they were.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45I think they were very old-fashioned and conservative.
0:14:45 > 0:14:48Very many men thought that
0:14:48 > 0:14:52women's place is in the kitchen.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55Really, they think so. They believed in that.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59Tove Jansson would eventually abandon
0:14:59 > 0:15:01the formal training of art school.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Instead, she continued her studies with a private tutor,
0:15:05 > 0:15:08the charismatic and respected painter Sam Vanni.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11Seeing something special in his pupil,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14Sam Vanni asked her to sit for a portrait.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18She has a pen and a paper
0:15:18 > 0:15:23and, actually, I'm sure that she is drawing his picture.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29"When it begins to get dark, Samuel gathers his brushes together
0:15:29 > 0:15:33"and with a joy that hurts I look at his picture
0:15:33 > 0:15:37"and tell myself it couldn't be so beautiful
0:15:37 > 0:15:40"if he didn't love me."
0:15:40 > 0:15:44She's so eager, she's eager to see even more.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49She's not like a passive woman.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54Sam saw, in Tove, the intelligent woman.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59Tove had very many men,
0:15:59 > 0:16:04so I think Sam wasn't the only one all the time.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09While Tove Jansson's romantic life had found the light,
0:16:09 > 0:16:12dark clouds would form across her country
0:16:12 > 0:16:15with great consequences for her family and friends.
0:16:18 > 0:16:19In the winter of 1939,
0:16:19 > 0:16:23the Soviet Union conducted a partially successful invasion of Finland,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26casting a shadow across the small country's future.
0:16:26 > 0:16:31As Finland contemplated how to expel the Soviets,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Nazi Germany's war machine spread across Western Europe and into Scandinavia.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40My father wanted me to enlist
0:16:40 > 0:16:43and my mother cried.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46I'd never seen her cry so much.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49It was a difficult time for me.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Should I obey Father or obey Mother?
0:16:53 > 0:16:56I decided to wait.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00Caught between these two expanding empires,
0:17:00 > 0:17:04Finland agreed to co-operate with the Nazi invasion
0:17:04 > 0:17:05of the Soviet Union.
0:17:05 > 0:17:10"..starten zum Angriff im Rahmen von..."
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Within days of the Nazi-led assault,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16the Soviets had begun their bombing campaign of Finland.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Still working for Garm, Tove Jansson began
0:17:19 > 0:17:23a series of illustrations which reflect the plight of her country.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28There is the angel of peace
0:17:28 > 0:17:32and here you can see the demolished earth
0:17:32 > 0:17:36with ruins and aeroplanes bombing.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38The message is very, very clear.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41Tove Jansson was very...
0:17:41 > 0:17:44upset over war
0:17:44 > 0:17:46and she was feeling it very deeply.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49She wasn't a political person at all,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52but she sensed it in a human way.
0:17:52 > 0:17:56She didn't like the Germans,
0:17:56 > 0:17:58she didn't like the Soviet Union.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00She hated the war.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04"Finnische Truppen im Stoss auf..."
0:18:06 > 0:18:08By now, Tove's brother,
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Per Olov, had been drafted into the Finnish army.
0:18:14 > 0:18:19The war affected my family deeply.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21And I've always...
0:18:22 > 0:18:27..thought that it affected my family
0:18:27 > 0:18:30more than it did me...
0:18:30 > 0:18:34because I was in the middle of it...
0:18:35 > 0:18:39..and they could only guess and be afraid.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42Tove Jansson attempted to capture
0:18:42 > 0:18:45this fear in a family portrait.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48It's a picture of a family in trouble.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51It's also a picture of Finland.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54It's an extraordinary painting.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58She was working with it for several years.
0:18:58 > 0:19:01And it was very difficult for her to paint it.
0:19:01 > 0:19:04The picture of Tove in the middle,
0:19:04 > 0:19:07dressed in black, was like
0:19:07 > 0:19:09she's watching all over the family.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15And Father is on one side
0:19:15 > 0:19:17and the mother is on the other side.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Tove is some kind of dividing point in the picture.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27And then there is the two brothers,
0:19:27 > 0:19:29Per Olov who was in the war,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33and the little brother, Lars, who was not yet in the war.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42War would also separate Tove from many of her friends,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45including the Jewish photographer Eva Konikoff,
0:19:45 > 0:19:48who fled Finland for America in 1941.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57Tove poured out her feelings to Eva in a series of illustrated letters,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01which reveal that, far from being solely a visual artist,
0:20:01 > 0:20:03she also had a talent for writing.
0:20:04 > 0:20:05It became a kind of diary.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Yes, a kind of diary to write these letters.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12There are several pages in them. They could be seven, eight, nine pages.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16"Sometimes it feels as if something of the collected agony
0:20:16 > 0:20:20"of the whole world has been weighing heavily in me
0:20:20 > 0:20:23"like a lump and threatening to burst apart."
0:20:23 > 0:20:28Everything is just very depressing, she thinks, during the war.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31There is no inspiration at last, even to work,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34- which is, for her, a very...- Mmm.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37..very sad thing.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40In her letters to Eva, Tove indicates
0:20:40 > 0:20:44her growing resistance to a conventional family life.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53"It's a man's war.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55"I can see what will happen to my work if I get married.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58"I will become either a bad painter or a bad wife.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03"And I don't want to give birth to children only for them
0:21:03 > 0:21:06"to be killed in some future war."
0:21:07 > 0:21:10You have a feeling that she's quite a feminist here,
0:21:10 > 0:21:13but it's her feminism, I would say.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17She could see that she was an artist.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21She would never have had time for family and children.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26Her art was more important than anything else.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28She was ready to...
0:21:29 > 0:21:31..to live without a family.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36As Tove Jansson came to the realisation
0:21:36 > 0:21:40that she would never have a family of her own, she began to invent one.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45The Moomins would bring together her gifts as an artist
0:21:45 > 0:21:47with her fluency as a writer.
0:21:48 > 0:21:49Her fictional family,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52and the magical landscape in which she painted them,
0:21:52 > 0:21:54would draw on the bleak realities of the day.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58In the opening months of war,
0:21:58 > 0:22:01Tove Jansson had started writing her first novel for children,
0:22:01 > 0:22:03Moomin And The Great Flood,
0:22:03 > 0:22:06in which a torrential deluge surges through Moominvalley,
0:22:06 > 0:22:08separating Moomintroll
0:22:08 > 0:22:11and Moominmamma from Moominpappa.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14I think you could say that she wrote her first two books
0:22:14 > 0:22:17in the shadow of the war.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21Because they are refugees, and for Moomintroll,
0:22:21 > 0:22:23the family's splitting up.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Moomintroll is trying to find his father
0:22:29 > 0:22:32and a new home with his mother.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35There are very many dangerous things
0:22:35 > 0:22:38before they get to the happy ending.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45That first book set the tone
0:22:45 > 0:22:50that this was a family with all these catastrophes happening to them,
0:22:50 > 0:22:52but through being who they were
0:22:52 > 0:22:56they would make it and the ending would be a good ending.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02The book was followed by Comet In Moominland,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06in which the hero Moomin faces another catastrophe.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08"Look," whispered Sniff in terror.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12The sky was no longer blue, it was pale red.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17"Perhaps it's the sunset," said Snufkin, doubtfully.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20But Moomintroll looked very grave and said, "No.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24"This time, it's the comet. It's on its way to Earth."
0:23:24 > 0:23:27There's a flood in the first one
0:23:27 > 0:23:30and then there's the comet in the second one.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33She was truly fascinated by the comet.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36She returned to it several times
0:23:36 > 0:23:37as a symbol or as a metaphor
0:23:37 > 0:23:39for the fear of the bombs,
0:23:39 > 0:23:42the fear of the annihilation.
0:23:44 > 0:23:48But that's quite unique, I think, for a children's book.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53By the end of 1944,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57another disaster had fallen on Finland.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Following its Armistice with the Soviets in September,
0:24:00 > 0:24:04the country had turned its attention to driving out the Nazis,
0:24:04 > 0:24:07who left a trail of devastation in their wake.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12Tove Jansson's response in satirical magazine Garm
0:24:12 > 0:24:14was immediate and direct.
0:24:18 > 0:24:23She's very clearly showing that the Nazi symbol is drowning, and people,
0:24:23 > 0:24:25very different persons here,
0:24:25 > 0:24:32they are anxious to get away from it, so that they won't drown themselves.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35I think that this is much more brave
0:24:35 > 0:24:38than we could imagine today.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Another conflict, one between Tove and her father Viktor,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47was coming to a head within the Jansson household.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50It was time for her to choose a home of her own.
0:24:52 > 0:24:57In 1944, she found one in the centre of Helsinki.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05It was an artist's studio, really.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Some of the walls were broken, the windows were broken
0:25:10 > 0:25:13but that didn't matter, it was her studio
0:25:13 > 0:25:15and I think it was love at first sight.
0:25:18 > 0:25:21She could work here, she could live here and she could love here.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28In her new studio, Tove celebrated the end of the war
0:25:28 > 0:25:31and welcomed in an exciting period
0:25:31 > 0:25:34of experimentation and self-discovery.
0:25:36 > 0:25:39SHE SPEAKS IN HER OWN LANGUAGE
0:25:41 > 0:25:43- Of course.- Of course. Tove danced all the time!
0:26:30 > 0:26:32Still heady with post-war optimism,
0:26:32 > 0:26:37Tove encountered a new lover who would change her life for ever -
0:26:37 > 0:26:42actress and aspiring theatre director Vivica Bandler.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46Tove fell passionately in love with her.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54Not only were same-sex relationships outlawed in Finland at that time,
0:26:54 > 0:26:56but Vivica was married.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Tove wanted to speak of her love,
0:26:59 > 0:27:04she was so happy and Vivica said to her, "We must be very, very careful."
0:27:04 > 0:27:08She didn't want to speak of it as openly as Tove wanted.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14The affair was intense but brief and ended within weeks
0:27:14 > 0:27:16when Vivica went abroad to work.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21She had had her love story, a love story with a woman,
0:27:21 > 0:27:24and she was very sad, very disappointed
0:27:24 > 0:27:27and she tried to raise herself again.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29Tove threw herself into a commission to paint
0:27:29 > 0:27:31two society scenes for a restaurant.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37The twin frescoes are now conserved in a public building in Helsinki.
0:27:50 > 0:27:54I think that Tove has put everything in this one.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59As with the Moomin books, Tove Jansson wove the recent events
0:27:59 > 0:28:02of her own life into one of the frescoes.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05The end of her affair with Vivica is there for all to see.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11The name of the fresco is Autumn Party.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15The summer is over and the autumn is coming
0:28:15 > 0:28:20and she is not happy in that picture. It's a bad day.
0:28:22 > 0:28:23She portrays herself alone
0:28:23 > 0:28:26while Vivica dances with a different partner.
0:28:28 > 0:28:29"I know the whole of my painting
0:28:29 > 0:28:32"is going through a process of change just now,
0:28:32 > 0:28:36"becoming stronger and more live and this is thanks to you.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40"Lines and colours aren't enough
0:28:40 > 0:28:43"if there is no expression and zap and intensity in them -
0:28:43 > 0:28:46"even if it's the intensity of despair."
0:28:47 > 0:28:51If you take a good look, you find every time something new.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56Beside Tove sits Moomintroll,
0:28:56 > 0:29:00by now her constant companion, along with her cigarettes.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05I think Moomin is sitting at the table near Jansson,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08drinking champagne and smoking. HE LAUGHS
0:29:12 > 0:29:16Tove also recorded her secret love for Vivica in her third
0:29:16 > 0:29:20and most successful Moomin book - Finn Family Moomintroll.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24In Finn Family Moomintroll, there are two creatures, Thingumy and Bob,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26and they come into Moomin Valley,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30they have their own language, no-one else can understand it
0:29:30 > 0:29:34and they're carrying a suitcase with a secret content.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36Eventually it's revealed that it is a ruby,
0:29:36 > 0:29:41a red ruby with a very, very fantastic light.
0:29:41 > 0:29:45Also they are chased by the Groke, she is dark,
0:29:45 > 0:29:46symbolising a sort of fear.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50The Groke wants to get hold of this content too
0:29:50 > 0:29:54because she claims it is hers. So the ruby is a symbol of love.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58They had to hide their love away for the society.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02There you can see the story between Tove and Vivica
0:30:02 > 0:30:04and their secret love.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06Tove's personal transformation
0:30:06 > 0:30:09was also reflected in the bigger themes of the book.
0:30:09 > 0:30:14In the Finn Family Moomintroll, the Hobgoblin loses his hat
0:30:14 > 0:30:17and the problem with the Hobgoblin's hat,
0:30:17 > 0:30:19or the plus side, depending on your luck,
0:30:19 > 0:30:24is if something falls into the hat it will become something else.
0:30:24 > 0:30:28And Moomin unwittingly hides in the Hobgoblin's hat
0:30:28 > 0:30:31and he emerges completely changed,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34but he doesn't know that he's changed because he thinks he's Moomin,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36and all his playmates, the Snork,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39the Snork Maiden, they don't recognise him.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41He becomes very, very upset.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44And then Moominmamma comes in and he says, "You recognise me, don't you?
0:30:44 > 0:30:48"I'm Moomintroll," and she just goes, "Yeah, you're Moomintroll."
0:30:48 > 0:30:51She doesn't blink for a second, she knows it's her son. No matter
0:30:51 > 0:30:55how much he's changed, she knows it's her son and it's just...
0:30:55 > 0:30:58Even as a kid, I just found that really...
0:30:58 > 0:31:02And it just came out of...not an emotional story,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05it was a funny story about hiding in a Hobgoblin's hat and then suddenly
0:31:05 > 0:31:10this punch of love comes through and knocks you sideways.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16The book reflects the acceptance by Tove's own family
0:31:16 > 0:31:20of her romances with women, but in the wider society of Finland,
0:31:20 > 0:31:24same-sex relationships would remain illegal until 1971.
0:31:25 > 0:31:28While the first two Moomin books went largely unnoticed,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32Finn Family Moomintroll became Tove Jansson's breakthrough.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36Its translation into English in 1950 inspired a London agent
0:31:36 > 0:31:40called Charles Sutton to come to Helsinki to meet the author.
0:31:46 > 0:31:47Their auspicious meeting
0:31:47 > 0:31:51would take place in suitably impressive surroundings.
0:31:55 > 0:31:59The Hotel Kamp was the most wonderful luxury hotel
0:31:59 > 0:32:03and luxury restaurant, the most famous hotel in Finland.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08Charles Sutton offered Tove Jansson a lucrative deal to create
0:32:08 > 0:32:11a comic strip for a British daily newspaper.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14Tove was still a relatively poor artist,
0:32:14 > 0:32:18exchanging her paintings for heating fuel.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22Tove was quite excited about learning this new thing,
0:32:22 > 0:32:24this new art of making comics
0:32:24 > 0:32:27but she was an artist, and at first,
0:32:27 > 0:32:32instead of speech balloons she wanted to have the text beneath the panels
0:32:32 > 0:32:37and they said, "No, you have to follow those rules, of course."
0:32:37 > 0:32:41Tove quickly adapted her skills to the comic strip form
0:32:41 > 0:32:42while also making it her own.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47Within a very short time, only by the third panel,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50Tove Jansson's already doing one of her big innovations,
0:32:50 > 0:32:52something I was not aware anybody else
0:32:52 > 0:32:54has done before in newspaper strips,
0:32:54 > 0:32:57which is to use different graphic elements of the story
0:32:57 > 0:32:59to divide the panels.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03Here's a wonderful example where Moomin is using a hosepipe,
0:33:03 > 0:33:06which creates the actual surround of the first panel
0:33:06 > 0:33:10and then it is trailered as a kind of flow through to guide the reader.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13Here, for example, it's a ghostly story, so one of the ghosties
0:33:13 > 0:33:15is actually a dividing form.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19And here, very cleverly, she uses a door opening
0:33:19 > 0:33:23as the panel border to allow the characters to rush through.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27Sutton pulled off a deal with London's Evening News
0:33:27 > 0:33:31who would carry the Moomin cartoon strip to over 1.5 million readers.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35In 1954, they launched a massive campaign to herald
0:33:35 > 0:33:37the arrival of Moomin.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41They took quite a long time to build up anticipation for this strip
0:33:41 > 0:33:44because this was a big, big thing.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47They're putting teaser images, they put this very cryptic image.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52You opened the newspaper and see a huge bottom with a tail.
0:33:52 > 0:33:53Of course, you start to wonder,
0:33:53 > 0:33:55"What on earth is this and what's going on?"
0:33:55 > 0:33:58So I think the campaign was genius.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02Moomin was a hit.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05120 newspapers ran the strip worldwide,
0:34:05 > 0:34:07reaching 12 million readers.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09It brought an end to Tove's money worries
0:34:09 > 0:34:13and led to further requests for Moomin-related projects.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18One offer she did accept was to stage the Moomins in the theatre,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21an experience she would share in her next Moomin book.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25In Moominsummer Madness, there's a flood
0:34:25 > 0:34:27and this strange vessel floats by,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31but they actually tie it up, they tether it up to the house.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35What a beautiful image. But they don't know what it is.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37"After a while, Moominpappa pushed back his hat
0:34:37 > 0:34:40"and looked sharply out over the sea.
0:34:40 > 0:34:45"Something strange was on its way, carried by the inward current.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48"It was quite clearly a kind of house.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52"Two golden faces were painted on its roof, one was crying
0:34:52 > 0:34:56"and the other one laughing at the Moomins."
0:34:56 > 0:35:00I think she was quite fascinated by, you know, these tricks
0:35:00 > 0:35:03and how you can transform yourself
0:35:03 > 0:35:07and that everyone gets up on the stage and they are someone else.
0:35:07 > 0:35:12That is a mix between people that are satisfied with being themselves
0:35:12 > 0:35:15and people that want to be someone else.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24Tove Jansson's own identity was being transformed by the demands
0:35:24 > 0:35:28of countless public engagements,
0:35:28 > 0:35:30including appearances on television.
0:35:32 > 0:35:37I don't think that she could possibly have envisaged
0:35:37 > 0:35:40becoming quite so famous.
0:35:45 > 0:35:47People asked her over and over again, for ever, to,
0:35:47 > 0:35:49"Please, can you draw me Moomin? Can you do this?"
0:35:51 > 0:35:54She was now attracting over 2,000 fan letters a year.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01She answered the letters all her life.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05She wanted to do it for herself,
0:36:05 > 0:36:07not having an assistant or secretary.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14On top of this, her newspaper contract committed her
0:36:14 > 0:36:17to producing six strips a week for seven years.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22This constant creation of new stories for Moomin
0:36:22 > 0:36:26was taking its toll, as well as eclipsing her ambitions in painting.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28In her notes at this time,
0:36:28 > 0:36:32she's quite aggressive about her own creation...
0:36:32 > 0:36:37"I've poured out my feelings into Moomintroll but he is changing.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42"I no longer feel safe in my secret cave. It's trapping me inside."
0:36:42 > 0:36:46..and you can see that in the figure of the Moomintroll.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50He gets bigger and bigger and is really, really big,
0:36:50 > 0:36:55and it's like a metaphor for the artist that is hidden.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57She is hidden behind a Moomintroll.
0:36:57 > 0:37:02It's just a Moomintroll, it's not Tove Jansson any more.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05It all came at a very high price.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08She practically fell apart.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14Her commitments to the newspapers
0:37:14 > 0:37:17and the public did more than threaten her spirits.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22By 1956, over two years had passed with no sign of a new book.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26It seemed Moomin's adventures beyond the comic strip were over.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33This particular favourite of mine is from the first story and it has
0:37:33 > 0:37:36Moomin saying, "I only want to live in peace
0:37:36 > 0:37:38"and plant potatoes and dream."
0:37:38 > 0:37:42Knowing Moomin's character, that sums him up perfectly, I think,
0:37:42 > 0:37:44and it sums up also, I think,
0:37:44 > 0:37:48a longing in Tove Jansson for the simpler life -
0:37:48 > 0:37:53not having to strive and try and be more and more successful and rich.
0:37:53 > 0:37:57As her obligations wore away at her creativity,
0:37:57 > 0:38:01a new muse was about to enter her life.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04Following an introduction at a party, Tove was invited
0:38:04 > 0:38:08to listen to jazz records at the home of a fellow artist -
0:38:08 > 0:38:10Tuulilkki Pietila.
0:38:12 > 0:38:17Tuulilkki lived a bit away from the studio and it was a very cold winter,
0:38:17 > 0:38:23there was a lot of snow and she walks all this way to Tuulilkki,
0:38:23 > 0:38:28thinking of Tuulilkki and the snow and what she's going to experience,
0:38:28 > 0:38:30and they play their records
0:38:30 > 0:38:33and Tuulilkki had a bottle of wine behind a curtain.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37And they talked about Paris, both of them.
0:38:37 > 0:38:40Well, they talked about other things you can talk about
0:38:40 > 0:38:44when you meet someone that you know that you're going to love.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50Not only had Tove found a partner for life in Tuulilkki Pietila,
0:38:50 > 0:38:54but that love would reignite Tove's interest in Moomin
0:38:54 > 0:38:55and inspire a new book.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Well, she began writing Moominland Midwinter.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07She was often sitting at Tuulilkki's place.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11So that is really the book of Tuulilkki
0:39:11 > 0:39:14and Too-Ticky, as she is called in the book,
0:39:14 > 0:39:15a new character.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19In the character of Too-Ticky, a sea-loving tomboy,
0:39:19 > 0:39:22Tove Jansson created a soulmate for Moomintroll
0:39:22 > 0:39:25just as Tuulilkki had become for Tove.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32It's a book about how beautiful the winter can be
0:39:32 > 0:39:35and how philosophical the winter can be.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40You can say that Too-Ticky, she's the philosopher of the winter,
0:39:40 > 0:39:45though she says nothing is secure and that is the point.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49You never know and that is just the point with the winter.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52So Moomintroll, in this book,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55he experiences a lot of new things,
0:39:55 > 0:39:59just as Tove did, I think, with Tuulilkki.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03In Moominland Midwinter, Moomintroll's habitual hibernation
0:40:03 > 0:40:06is disturbed, and, for the first time,
0:40:06 > 0:40:11he wakes during winter, revealing an unfamiliar version of a world
0:40:11 > 0:40:14he has only experienced in the warmer months.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16The squirrel comes out too early
0:40:16 > 0:40:18when the snow is still on the ground and he gets frozen
0:40:18 > 0:40:20and there's a wonderful picture of him
0:40:20 > 0:40:23with all four paws in the air, lying on his back,
0:40:23 > 0:40:25but looking strangely peaceful and the little mouse says,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28"He's quite dead," in her matter-of-fact way
0:40:28 > 0:40:30and I think she's secretly rather pleased.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34Then there's this wonderful footnote at the bottom of the next page
0:40:34 > 0:40:37that says, "In case the reader feels like having a cry,
0:40:37 > 0:40:40"please take a quick look at page 126, author's note."
0:40:40 > 0:40:46So we whizz through to page 126 and sure enough, two more pictures
0:40:46 > 0:40:50of a rather nice little squirrel scampering around in the snow.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52So I think he made it.
0:40:52 > 0:40:55By the time the book was published the following year,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Tove and Tuulilkki, or Tooti, as she was known,
0:40:58 > 0:41:00were almost living together.
0:41:01 > 0:41:06Tooti had her studio, sort of around the corner, in the other street,
0:41:06 > 0:41:10but they could get to each other through the attic.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13So Tove would be here in this studio working
0:41:13 > 0:41:15and Tooti would be in her studio working
0:41:15 > 0:41:18and then they would meet and have lunch.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23Well, they could be together but then they could return home
0:41:23 > 0:41:27when they wanted to and it was also very important
0:41:27 > 0:41:30because both of them were artists,
0:41:30 > 0:41:32and they could have a studio of their own.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37That was very important, I think. Work was the most important thing.
0:41:38 > 0:41:41By 1960, Tove's talents as a writer
0:41:41 > 0:41:44and illustrator had brought her wealth and fame
0:41:44 > 0:41:45and yet her true ambition -
0:41:45 > 0:41:49to be acknowledged as a fine artist - remained unfulfilled.
0:41:51 > 0:41:52Determined to change this,
0:41:52 > 0:41:56she turned down the opportunity to renew her comic strip contract.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01Its responsibility would pass to her youngest brother Lars,
0:42:01 > 0:42:03a talented cartoonist in his own right.
0:42:04 > 0:42:08After the cartoons, she was full of energy,
0:42:08 > 0:42:11eager to paint.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14There was a big exhibition in Helsinki
0:42:14 > 0:42:19and all the other artists were abstract artists,
0:42:19 > 0:42:25except Tove. Tove has her apples and citrons
0:42:25 > 0:42:31and they had to put her work away from the big hall to a smaller room
0:42:31 > 0:42:36because it would not suit the others, so it wasn't very easy
0:42:36 > 0:42:38and I think it hurt her very much.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48In search of solace, Tove returned to the peaceful little islands
0:42:48 > 0:42:52in the Gulf of Finland she had enjoyed as a child.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Instead of renting the Gustafssons' house as her parents had done,
0:43:05 > 0:43:08Tove and Tooti began a project to build their own house
0:43:08 > 0:43:11on a tiny island that would be all their own.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18This house would be a haven, somewhere Tove and Tooti
0:43:18 > 0:43:20could work through the summer,
0:43:20 > 0:43:23out of the spotlight, living a simple life.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31A 30-minute boat ride from the Gustafssons' island towards the open sea
0:43:31 > 0:43:36took them to their chosen spot, a tiny uninhabited island of Klovharu.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45After two years of challenges and setbacks to construction,
0:43:45 > 0:43:49the simple, charming house was completed.
0:43:55 > 0:43:59To reach it, Tove and Tooti often braved the elements
0:43:59 > 0:44:01but, for them, it was worth it.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10One of the greatest pleasures the girls, Tove and Tooti,
0:44:10 > 0:44:13had here was to actually watch the sea and the storms.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18This place changes character completely.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25You can watch the sea raging and from all directions.
0:44:29 > 0:44:33When Tove and Tooti moved out here, they had a good view of any boat
0:44:33 > 0:44:37that was coming in so they would see us coming.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40Most often, Tove would, of course, run out of the house,
0:44:40 > 0:44:42you know, with a warm welcome.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48And often Tooti would say hello from there and be smoking cigarettes.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15Then you'd go on a picnic and you'd be looking for beautiful stones,
0:45:15 > 0:45:17or swimming,
0:45:17 > 0:45:21doing all sorts of things. So she was always ready for a small adventure.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32It was always nice to come here, actually. Yeah.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38In some ways, it was very hard because of the weather.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43They had to plan for the food, for everything, for weeks ahead.
0:45:45 > 0:45:47They didn't have electricity.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52They didn't have any toilets, they didn't have any of these things
0:45:52 > 0:45:55you are used to when you live in the city, for example.
0:45:58 > 0:46:02Tove's island adventure helped her regain the freedom she longed for.
0:46:02 > 0:46:07While here in 1970, she began her next Moomin tale,
0:46:07 > 0:46:08Moominvalley In November,
0:46:08 > 0:46:11which features a new character called Toft,
0:46:11 > 0:46:13whom she based on herself.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17When it begins, Toft arrives at the Moomin house,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20only to find the Moomins are not home.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24The book would send shockwaves through Moominland... and its readers.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27All the people who are very dependent, emotionally,
0:46:27 > 0:46:31on the Moomins, come to the Moomin house for comfort
0:46:31 > 0:46:35and for pancakes and good conversation, and they're not there!
0:46:39 > 0:46:42There is this sense of autumn and winter
0:46:42 > 0:46:44and knowing that the end is coming,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47but all with the hope of the Moomins returning,
0:46:47 > 0:46:50they're coming back from somewhere by boat.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54While writing the book, Tove faced a devastating personal loss.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00Ham, her mother, took ill and died in the mid-summer of 1970.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09In the autumn, Tove resumed her work.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12Rather than return to her remote island, she stayed
0:47:12 > 0:47:18at the Gustafssons' house, where she found comfort and inspiration.
0:47:53 > 0:47:54"Just before the sun went down,
0:47:54 > 0:47:56"it threw a shaft of light through the clouds,
0:47:56 > 0:48:02"cold and wintry yellow, making the whole world look very desolate.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04"And then Toft saw the storm lantern
0:48:04 > 0:48:07"Moominpappa had hung up at the top of the mast.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11"It threw a gentle, warm light and burnt steadily.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14"The boat was a very long way away."
0:48:15 > 0:48:19You don't really know if they are coming back to Moominvalley.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23It's left to the reader to decide, or to imagine
0:48:23 > 0:48:27if the Moomins are coming back or not.
0:48:27 > 0:48:32Having lost her father Viktor in 1958 and now Ham, her mother,
0:48:32 > 0:48:35the family of Tove's childhood was disappearing.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39Just as the Moomin house was now empty,
0:48:39 > 0:48:42the Jansson household would never be complete again.
0:48:42 > 0:48:47It became some sort of turning point, or ending point.
0:48:47 > 0:48:52Now this is the end of the Moomins also when Ham is gone.
0:48:55 > 0:48:58It's an extraordinary melancholic book.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01And when later on one finds out what Tove herself was going through
0:49:01 > 0:49:05when she wrote it, that again puts another perspective on it.
0:49:09 > 0:49:11I was devastated when the Moomins didn't turn up at the end.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15I thought, "Surely...!" You know, because everyone in it was so sad.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23And, of course, as an adult reading that book,
0:49:23 > 0:49:25I know they never came again,
0:49:25 > 0:49:30because Tove Jansson never wrote another Moomin book.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38Ending the Moomin series only increased interest in its author...
0:49:41 > 0:49:45..still struggling with the loss of her mother.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49And the business matters were never-ending.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54It was the agreements and the rights and translations and enquiries
0:49:54 > 0:49:56and demands of all kinds.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03And because she had a bit of a hard time saying no herself,
0:50:03 > 0:50:07she needed somebody like Tooti to actually, you know, say,
0:50:07 > 0:50:09"No, she's not available."
0:50:12 > 0:50:14To escape these relentless pressures,
0:50:14 > 0:50:17Tove turned once again to adventure,
0:50:17 > 0:50:23and in July 1971, she embarked on a trip around the world with Tooti.
0:50:23 > 0:50:25"Tooti and I are going to go around the world!
0:50:25 > 0:50:28"Japan, then Hawaii and San Pedro,
0:50:28 > 0:50:32"and Mexico, and, by multifarious ways, including a paddle steamer,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35"up through the States to New York!"
0:50:35 > 0:50:39On their travels they always bought a lot of records abroad.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46And when they lived in New Orleans for some time,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49they went to jazz clubs every evening.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56"I haven't quite yet realised it's true.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59"Tooti's studying English - four to five hours a day -
0:50:59 > 0:51:02"and the map of the world is constantly open."
0:51:05 > 0:51:08Whilst travel provided a welcome distraction,
0:51:08 > 0:51:11Tove's thoughts would return to her absent mother, Ham...
0:51:12 > 0:51:15..eventually giving birth to a new book.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19One of the ways to deal with her mother's death for Tove
0:51:19 > 0:51:21was to write that book.
0:51:22 > 0:51:26The Summer Book would be a decisive move into adult fiction,
0:51:26 > 0:51:30and is now celebrated as a classic of Scandinavian literature.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34It is based on observations of Tove's six-year-old niece Sophia
0:51:34 > 0:51:37and Sophia's grandmother Ham
0:51:37 > 0:51:41during one of the last summers of Ham's life.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44Both the main characters, Sophia and grandmother,
0:51:44 > 0:51:46are in sort of points of crisis.
0:51:46 > 0:51:50Grandmother's ill and frail and Sophia asks her,
0:51:50 > 0:51:52I think, in the first few pages,
0:51:52 > 0:51:55"Grandmother, when are you going to die?"
0:51:55 > 0:51:59And she says, "It's none of your business. But it's going to be soon."
0:51:59 > 0:52:01And that's what she knows.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05Sophia's mother has very recently died and she's come to the island
0:52:05 > 0:52:08with her father who is very absent.
0:52:10 > 0:52:13Again, Tove drew on real life.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15Two years before Ham's death,
0:52:15 > 0:52:17the Janssons suffered a terrible loss.
0:52:17 > 0:52:19Sophia's young mother had died suddenly.
0:52:19 > 0:52:24Her father Lars, already taxed with his Moomin comic work load,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27would now have to cope as a single parent.
0:52:27 > 0:52:32My father didn't discuss my mother's death.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36Not then, and not later.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38It was...
0:52:38 > 0:52:43That was his way of handling it.
0:52:45 > 0:52:51I was an only child and, at the time, the only child on these islands.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56So while the adults were doing other things, my grandmother,
0:52:56 > 0:53:00she'd be left to spend time with me.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04They'd do wonderful strange and eccentric games.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06Create Venice out of a marsh.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09You find yourself thinking, "Yes, why not?"
0:53:09 > 0:53:11You know, if there's nothing else to do,
0:53:11 > 0:53:14you'd find yourself doing anything to pass the time.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18Things like dressing up. Those sort of things were...
0:53:18 > 0:53:20You did things for fun.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24It's as if her and her grandmother
0:53:24 > 0:53:26are both able to be completely honest.
0:53:26 > 0:53:27They have nothing to lose.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30They describe people as they really are
0:53:30 > 0:53:33rather than how someone else might politely describe them.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36There's a moment when Grandmother's false teeth go missing
0:53:36 > 0:53:39and everyone starts searching for them.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41"It was an early, very warm morning in July
0:53:41 > 0:53:44"and it had rained during the night.
0:53:44 > 0:53:46"The granite steamed, the moss,
0:53:46 > 0:53:48"the crevices, were drenched with moisture
0:53:48 > 0:53:51"and all the colours everywhere had deepened.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55"Below the veranda, the vegetation in the morning shade
0:53:55 > 0:53:59"was like a rainforest of lush leaves and flowers,
0:53:59 > 0:54:03"which she had to be careful not to break as she searched.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06"She held one hand in front of her mouth
0:54:06 > 0:54:08"and was constantly afraid of losing her balance.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12""What are you doing?" asked little Sophia.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14""Nothing," her grandmother answered.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17""That is to say," she added angrily,
0:54:17 > 0:54:20""I'm looking for my false teeth!""
0:54:23 > 0:54:26At the age of 58, Tove had transformed herself again.
0:54:26 > 0:54:29With the Moomin stories behind her,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32she became a respected writer of adult fiction,
0:54:32 > 0:54:35producing a substantial body of short stories and novels,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39praised for their acute and witty observations.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47Tove and Tooti spent almost 30 summers on Klovharu.
0:54:47 > 0:54:51But by 1992, they were both in their 70s
0:54:51 > 0:54:54and their island adventure was coming to an end.
0:54:56 > 0:55:01"Last summer, something unforgivable happened. I started to fear the sea.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05"The giant waves no longer signified adventure, but fear -
0:55:05 > 0:55:08"fear and worry for the boat
0:55:08 > 0:55:12"and all other boats that were sailing around in bad weather.
0:55:12 > 0:55:15"We knew it was time to give the cottage away."
0:55:17 > 0:55:22Once they'd left, they never wanted to come back.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27They didn't even want to talk about it. It was the end, and that was it.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33In the last decade of her life, Tove was diagnosed with cancer.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41She had stopped smoking. She smoked all her life. And I still smoked.
0:55:41 > 0:55:47And then she said, "Could I just taste a puff from your cigarette?"
0:55:47 > 0:55:52And then she took it, and said, "No, it's not good. Not good at all!"
0:55:54 > 0:55:58She wanted to be like it was before, but she was tired.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01But she was still... she was still Tove.
0:56:04 > 0:56:10I remember once when I said goodbye to Tooti and Tove,
0:56:10 > 0:56:14they stood close together in Tooti's hall.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19And maybe that was the last time.
0:56:20 > 0:56:25And they just looked so, you know, a close couple.
0:56:28 > 0:56:33Tove died on a summer's day in 2001, aged 87.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36Only death had parted her from Tooti,
0:56:36 > 0:56:39who buried Tove with her parents Viktor and Ham
0:56:39 > 0:56:44and her youngest brother Lars, who had died the previous summer.
0:56:44 > 0:56:46Tooti followed eight years later.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58It's different coming now when Tove and Tooti are not living here,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01because it's not the same without them.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05Because when they were living here, it was full of life.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11Across eight decades, Tove Jansson lived life to the full.
0:57:11 > 0:57:16Pioneering, gifted and courageous, she always made time for fun
0:57:16 > 0:57:17and laughter.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20# It must have been moon glow
0:57:22 > 0:57:27# That led me straight to you... #
0:57:27 > 0:57:29Her legacy is still growing today,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33bringing joy to new generations of adults and children.
0:57:36 > 0:57:41Through the Moomins, she is writing absolutely from the heart.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44She connected so easily with me, across all those demographics
0:57:44 > 0:57:47and those oceans and those gaps of time,
0:57:47 > 0:57:49because she put so much of herself into those stories.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52They're so honest, they're so vulnerable.
0:57:52 > 0:57:54There's nothing calculated about them.
0:57:54 > 0:57:55And that's always universal.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59If you're really, really personal, if you're really, really particular
0:57:59 > 0:58:02to what's hurting you or what's making you happy,
0:58:02 > 0:58:04then you become universal.
0:58:06 > 0:58:08"Then Toft began thinking of himself.
0:58:08 > 0:58:12"His dream about meeting the family again
0:58:12 > 0:58:15"had become so enormous that it made him feel tired.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19"The whole of Moominvalley had somehow become unreal.
0:58:19 > 0:58:22"The house, the garden and the river were nothing
0:58:22 > 0:58:25"but a play of shadows on the screen.
0:58:25 > 0:58:29"And Toft no longer knew what was real
0:58:29 > 0:58:32"and what was only in his imagination."
0:58:59 > 0:59:02Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd