Fiction:Christmas has come early in the guise of this wonderful collection by a writer better known to children than to those unfortunate adults who, in their earlier days, failed to meet up with the Moomins.
The who? The Moomins, a community known for their commonsensical whimsy as well as their biggish noses. Settled in the glorious realm of Scandinavia's mountains and forests, they face all difficulties and survive.
Tove Jansson (1914-2001), the Finnish writer and illustrator, was the daughter of a famous illustrator mother and a sculptor father. Imagination was her medium and her love of the natural world added to the magic. She was an artist raised in an artistic environment, but she was also a daughter and it is no coincidence that she wrote exclusively for children until her own mother died. Jansson was then in her 50s and ready to begin writing for adults, which she did for close on 30 years.
A Winter Bookgathers together some of her finest stories and is beautifully presented as well as engagingly introduced by novelist Ali Smith. The title is inspired by that of Jansson's novel, The Summer Book, which was published in 1972. It tells the story of an old woman and a young girl who, during the course of one summer, live on an island. Islands are central to Jansson's vision and also to these stories, which move, quite brilliantly and heartbreakingly, between the twin poles of impressionable youth and vulnerable old age.
There are some 20 works here: some are admittedly slight, but Jansson's lightness of touch and subtle wisdom prods the reader into paying very close attention. The opening story, in the first of three sections, is the stuff of dreams. The narrator, having discovered a silver stone, decides to push it home. Her struggle becomes an epic. This first section is strongly autobiographical and her parents emerge as real presences. They are also present in the second section, which ends with one of her most famous stories, The Boat and Me, in which the narrator recalls a secret voyage, undertaken with the encouragement of her mother who, having somehow found out about the project, appears with good wishes and sandwiches. The girl sets off before sunrise, intent on rowing "round the whole of Pellinge archipelago, uninhabited rocks and all, both the inner and outer parts . . . I don't know why it was so important". Her father appears and takes over, and even eats the sandwiches. They return just before sunrise.
Section three begins with Jansson's masterpiece, The Squirrel, in which an old woman, living alone on an island, discovers she has a visitor. There is nothing fey or sentimental about what happens. Read this and appreciate exactly how rare a sensibility Jansson possessed. They (the old lady and the squirrel) "prepared themselves to winter on the island, they got used to one another and developed habits in common". What develops is wary co-existence at a distance. Quite by accident, the old lady destroys the squirrel's shelter when simply visiting the woodpile. All the while, the old lady is becoming aware that she is no longer able for island life. This theme is reiterated in Taking Leave.
Another Jansson classic, Travelling Light, is also included here. The narrator sets off on a sea journey. It is a "sudden departure" and intended as a bid for freedom from everything. She is giddy with relief, "No telephone, no letters, no doorbell". But on entering her cabin she discovers she has to share it with a fellow passenger. The sheer comedy of what happens is so cleverly handled. To read this rich little book is to engage with an original whose imagination remained youthful and whose response to old age was one of spirited defiance.
• Eileen Battersby is Literary Correspondent of The Irish Times
• A Winter Book: Selected Stories By Tove Jansson, various translators Sort Of Books, 208pp. £6.99
