A fairytale guide to Sweden: places from children's books. Memories of childhood

I have long wanted to keep in my journal an article by Oleg Fochkin about the life of Astrid Lindgren and excerpts from her memories of childhood. Supplemented with photographs.
Here I am saving it :)
And I advise those who haven’t read it yet - it’s very interesting and great love written!

One of the minor planets is named after Astrid Lindgren.
"Call me now" Asteroid Lindgren"“,” she joked, having learned about such an unusual act of recognition.
The children's writer became the first woman to whom a monument was erected during her lifetime - it is located in the center of Stockholm, and Astrid was present at the opening ceremony.
The Swedes called their compatriot “woman of the century.”
Astrid Anna Emilia Lindgren is the most famous Swedish children's writer.

She wrote 87 children's books and most of of which has been translated into Russian. In particular these are:
- "Pippi Longstocking"
- "The Kid and Carlson, who lives on the roof"
- "Emil of Lenneberga"
- "Lionheart Brothers"
- "Roni, the Robber's Daughter"
- "The famous detective Kalle Blumkvist"
- "We are all from Bullerby"
- "Rasmus the Tramp"
- "Lotta from Loud Street"

In 1957, Lindgren became the first children's writer to receive the Swedish State Prize for Literary Achievement. Astrid received so many awards and prizes that it is simply impossible to list them all.
Among the most important:
- the Hans Christian Andersen Prize, which is called the “small Nobel”;
- Lewis Carroll Prize;
- awards from UNESCO and various governments;
- International Leo Tolstoy Gold Medal;
- Silver Bear (for the film "Ronnie - the Robber's Daughter").

Astrid Lindgren, née Eriksson, was born into a farming family on November 14, 1907 in the small town of Vimmerby, Småland province, in southern Sweden.

As Lindgren herself would later write in the collection of autobiographical essays “My Fictions,” she grew up in the age of the horse and the convertible. The main means of transportation for the family was a horse-drawn carriage, the pace of life was slower, entertainment was simpler, and the relationship with the surrounding nature was much closer than today.
And from childhood, the future great storyteller loved nature very much, not imagining how one could live without this amazing world.

Childhood passed under the banner of endless games - exciting, exciting, sometimes risky and in no way inferior to boyish fun. Astrid Lindgren retained her passion for climbing trees right up to old age. “The Law of Moses, thank God, does not prohibit old women from climbing trees.”, - she used to say in old age, overcoming another tree.

She was the second child of Samuel August Eriksson and his wife Hannah. My father rented a farm in Naes, a pastoral estate on the very outskirts of the town. In addition to her older brother Gunnar, Astrid soon had two sisters - Stina and Ingegerd.

Astrid's parents met when her father was thirteen and her mother was twelve, and they loved each other ever since.
They had deep affection for each other and for their children. And most importantly, they were not shy about these feelings, which by the standards of that time was very rare, if not a challenge to society.
About this time and special relationship in the family, the writer tenderly described in her only “adult” book “Samuel August from Sevedstorp and Hannah from Hult.”

As a child, Astrid Lindgren was surrounded by folklore, and many jokes, fairy tales, stories that she heard from her father or from friends later formed the basis of her own works.
Her love for books and reading, as she later admitted, arose in the kitchen of Christine, with whom she was friends. It was Christine who introduced Astrid to the wonderful world of fairy tales.
The girl grew up on books that were completely different from her own future works: on the sugary Elsa Beskow, on varnished notes folk tales, on moralizing stories for youth.

Her own abilities became obvious already in primary school, where Astrid was called "Wimmerbün's Selma Lagerlöf", which, according to own opinion, she didn't deserve it.
Astrid, who read a lot with early years, I learned very easily. It was much more difficult to maintain the rules of school discipline. This was the prototype of Pippi Longstocking.

The city that is described in almost every Lindgren novel is Vimmerby, near which Astrid’s homestead was located. Vimmerby turned out to be either the city where Pippi went shopping, or the patrimony of the policeman Björk, or the place where little Mio runs.

After school, at the age of 16, Astrid Lindgren began working as a journalist for the local newspaper "Wimmerby Tidningen".
The once obedient Astrid has turned into a real “queen of swing”.

But the height of outrageousness was her new haircut- she was one of the first in the area to cut her hair short, and this at the age of sixteen!
The shock was so great that her father categorically forbade her to show herself to him, and people on the street came up to her and asked her to take off her hat and show off her outlandish hairstyle.

At eighteen, Astrid became pregnant.
The scandal turned out to be so great that the girl had to leave her parents' home and go to the capital, leaving her position as a junior reporter and her beloved family.
In 1926, Astrid's son Lass was born.
Since there was not enough money, Astrid had to give her beloved son to Denmark, to a family of adoptive parents. She never forgave herself for this.

In Stockholm, Astrid studies to be a secretary, then works in a small office.
In 1931, she changed her job to the Royal Automobile Club and married her boss, Sture Lindgren, who turned Astrid Ericsson into Astrid Lindgren. After this, Astrid was able to take Lars home.

After marriage, Astrid Lindgren decided to become housewife to devote himself completely to his son. The boy was proud of Astrid - she was the most hooligan mother in the world! One day she jumped onto a tram at full speed and was fined by the conductor.

The Lindgrens' daughter Karin was born in 1934, when Lass was seven years old.

In 1941, the Lindgrens moved to an apartment overlooking Stockholm's Vasa Park, where the writer lived until her death. The family lived in harmony until Sture's death in 1952. Astrid was 44 years old at the time.

History of a twisted leg

Perhaps we would never have read the fairy tales of the Swedish writer if it were not for her daughter and “His Majesty’s chance.”
In 1941, Karin fell ill with pneumonia, and every evening Astrid told her all sorts of stories before bed. One day a girl ordered a story about Pippi Longstocking - she made up this name on the spot. So Astrid Lindgren began to write a story about a girl who does not obey any conditions.

Shortly before her daughter’s tenth birthday, Astrid twisted her ankle in an extremely unfortunate way and, lying in bed and thinking about her daughter’s birthday present, the future great storyteller wrote her first short story, “Pippi Longstocking,” and a written sequel about a funny red-haired girl.
The handwritten book with illustrations by the author was greeted with delight by my daughter. The 10-year-old daughter and friends persuaded Astrid to send the manuscript to one of the major Swedish publishing houses.
Since this all started...

The writer sent one copy of the manuscript to the largest Stockholm publishing house, Bonnier. After some deliberation, the manuscript was rejected. But the writer had already decided everything for herself and in 1944 she took part in a competition for best book for girls, announced by the relatively new and little-known publishing house "Raben & Sjotgren".
Lindgren received second prize for the story “Britt-Marie pours out her soul” and a publishing contract for it.

At the same time, the writer closely followed the discussion about education that was unfolding in society, advocating for an education that would take into account the thoughts and feelings of children and thus show respect for them.
She became an author who consistently spoke from a child's point of view.
Worldwide recognition for a long time could not reconcile the author with the Swedish State Commission for Children and educational literature. From the point of view of official teachers, Lindgren's tales were incorrect and insufficiently instructive.

And then Lindgren begins working in this publishing house as editor of the children's literature department.
Five years later, the writer receives the Nils Holgerson Prize, then the German Prize for the Best Children's Book ("Mio, My Mio").
She worked at this publishing house until her retirement, which she officially retired in 1970.
In 1946, she published her first story about detective Kalle Blumkvist, thanks to which she won first prize at literary competition(Astrid Lindgren did not participate in competitions anymore).

Carlson grew better in the USSR

The idea of ​​Carlson, who lives on the roof, was also suggested by his daughter.
Astrid noticed funny story Karin says that when a girl is left alone, a small cheerful man flies into her room through the window and hides behind a picture if adults enter.
His name was Liljem Kvarsten, a magical uncle in a pointed hat who takes lonely children on incredible journeys at dusk. He came to life in the collection "Little Nils Carlson" .

And in 1955, “The Kid and Carlson Who Lives on the Roof” appeared.
Carlson is the first positive hero a children's book with a full range of negative traits. He made us believe that all our fears and problems are just “trifles, an everyday matter.”

In March 1966, the teacher French Lilianna Lungina, the wife of film playwright Semyon Lungin, mother of filmmakers Evgeny and Pavel Lungin, brought home a Swedish book by a certain Astrid Lindgren in an old string bag.

She had been dreaming of working as a translator for a year, and the publishing house "Children's Literature" promised to conclude an agreement with her if a good Swedish book was found...

In 1967, the first Soviet edition of Carlson was published.
The book instantly became popular. By 1974, more than 10 million (!) copies of the tale had been sold.
Lindgren liked to repeat in her interviews that “there is something Russian” about Carlson. And then Lindgren came to Moscow. Lilianna Lungina recalled: "Astrid turned out to be surprisingly similar to her books - insightful, very smart. Easy-going and truly cheerful. When she came to us, she pulled our six-year-old son Zhenya out of the crib and began to play with him on the carpet, and when we accompanied her to the hotel, she , getting off the trolleybus, she danced on the street so infectiously and enthusiastically that we had to answer her in kind..."

Carlson’s “cult of personality” in the USSR began after the release of the animated duology “Kid and Carlson” and “Carlson Returned” shot at the Soyuzmultfilm studio.
It could have become a trilogy (a series about Uncle Julius) if the cartoon director Boris Stepantsev had not become carried away with new projects.
And the leading role in the cult cartoon was played by artist Anatoly Savchenko. It was he who created the characters that displaced the originals by Elon Wikland from our consciousness.
Many catchphrases from the m/f are missing from the book. Let us at least remember:
- “Dear Carlson!”
- “Ugh! I served my whole neck.”
- “Do I love children? How can I tell you this?... Crazy!”
- “And I’m crazy! What a shame...”

The emphasis was shifted towards the Baby’s loneliness. And instead of the mischievous boy that Lindgren had (he throws stones and is insolent to Miss Bock), we see a sad, big-eyed melancholy.
Carlson, in the Russian translation, is generally a good-natured person.

How a fairy tale changed power

Astrid Lindgren has earned more than one million crowns by selling the rights to publish her books and their film adaptations, to release audio and video cassettes, CDs with recordings of her songs or literary works in its own performance.

But all these years, her lifestyle did not change - Lindgren lived in the same modest Stockholm apartment and preferred to give money to others.
Only once, in 1976, when the tax collected by the state amounted to 102% (!) of her profits, Lingren protested.

She sent to the Stockholm newspaper Expressen open letter, in which she told a fairy tale about a certain Pomperipossa from Monismania. In this fairy tale for adults, Astrid Lindgren took the position of a layman and tried to expose the vices of society and its pretense.
In the year of parliamentary elections, the fairy tale became a bomb for the bureaucratic apparatus of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, which remained in power for over 40 years in a row.
The Social Democrats lost the elections.
Moreover, the writer herself was a member of this party all her life.

Her letter was so received because of the universal respect that the writer enjoyed in Sweden. Swedish children listened to her books on the radio. Her voice, face and sense of humor were also known to adults who constantly saw and heard Lindgren on radio and television, where she hosted various quizzes and talk shows.

“Not violence” was the title of her speech when presenting the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
"We all know- Lindgren reminded, - that children who are beaten and abused will beat and abuse their own children, and therefore this vicious circle must be broken.".

In the spring of 1985, she spoke publicly about the abuse of farm animals.
Prime Minister Ingvar Carlson himself listened. When he paid a visit to Astrid Lindgren, she asked what kind of young people he brought with him. "These are my bodyguards"- Carlson answered.
"That's pretty smart of you,- said the 78-year-old writer, - You never know what to expect from me when I'm in this mood!"

And in the newspapers a fairy tale appeared about a loving cow who protests against the mistreatment of livestock. In June 1988, an animal protection law was passed, called the Lindgren Law.

She was always afraid of not being on time...

In 1952, Astrid Sture's husband died.
Then her mother, father, and in 1974 her brother and several old friends died.
And son.

Voluntary seclusion began.
“Life is a wonderful thing, it lasts so long and yet is so short!”- she said.
The only thing Astrid was truly afraid of was not making it in time.

In recent years, she rarely left the house and did not communicate with journalists.
She practically lost her sight and hearing, but always tried to keep abreast of everything that was happening.
When Astrid turned 90, she appealed to her many fans not to send her gifts, but to send funds to a bank account for the construction of a children's medical center in Stockholm, where the writer herself sent an impressive amount.
Now this center is the largest in Northern Europe- is rightfully called the Astrid Lindgren Center.

Her books have been translated into more than 80 languages ​​and published in more than 100 countries.
It is said that if the entire circulation of Astrid Lindgren's books were placed in a vertical stack, it would be 175 times higher than the Eiffel Tower.

There is a museum of Astrid Lindgren's fairy tales "Junibacken" in Stockholm.
Nearby is the Astrid Lindgren Park, where you can run across the rooftops with Carlson, ride your own horse Pippi Longstocking and wander along Ulitsa Ubrazhniki.

The children's writer was posthumously nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
For the past ten years, there have been annual calls in the Swedish press to give Astrid Lindgren the Nobel Prize.
But children's writers have never been given this prize. Children's literature lives on its own. Perhaps because she faces not only literary tasks, but also pedagogical ones. But society always resists and lags behind.
Lindgren was never given the prize...

Oleg FOCHKIN

MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD

Astrid with her older brother Gunnar

“From my childhood, I primarily remember not people, but the amazing and beautiful environment that surrounded me. With age, the sensations become less and less vivid, but then the whole world around was unimaginably rich and full of colors. Strawberries among the rocks, carpets of blue spring flowers, primrose meadows, blueberry thickets known only to us, a forest covered with moss, through which graceful pink flowers make their way, Nas's paddocks, where we knew every path and every pebble like the back of our hands, a stream with water lilies, ditches, springs and trees - everything I remember this much more clearly than people."

Nas's wonderful landscapes not only provided children with a unique playground, but also allowed them to develop a vivid imagination. Little Ericssons tirelessly invented new exciting games with what they saw around them. The songs and prayers the children learned were also of no small importance for these games.
Amazing magic games.

“Oh, how we knew how to play! The four of us could play tirelessly from morning to night. All our games were fun and active, and sometimes even life-threatening, which we, of course, had no idea about at the time. We climbed the "The tallest trees and jumped between the rows of boards in the sawmill. We climbed high on the roof and balanced on it, and if only one of us stumbled, our games could stop forever."

One of the favorite games of the little Erikssons and their guests in Näs was the game “Don't step on the floor.” At the same time, all the children had to climb on the furniture in the bedroom without touching the floor at all. It is precisely this kind of game, but much later, that Pippi will offer to play to Tommy and Annike at Villa Hen.

“From the office door we had to climb onto the sofa, from there we had to climb to the kitchen door, and then to the dressing table and the work table. Then we could jump to dad’s bed, and from there to the upholstered ottoman, which we could move to the living room door, after why cross the open fireplace again to the study door.”

Another favorite game of Astrid and Gunnar was the wind-sail game.
The children had to run through all the rooms of the house, starting from different ends of it, and meet in the kitchen, where each had to poke the other in the stomach with a finger and shout “wind, wind!”
This is exactly what Emil and Ida play in the books about Emil from Lönnerberga.

There was an old elm tree in Näs, which Astrid and her brother and sisters called the “owl tree.”
The inside of the tree was completely hollow, and the children loved to play in it.
One day Gunnar climbed a tree, holding in his hands egg. He put the egg in the owl's nest, and twenty-one days later he found in it a newly hatched chicken, which his mother later bought from him for seventy-five öre.
Astrid retells this story to us in the book “We are all from Bullerby”, where little Bosse performs this trick of Gunnar.

However, at the beginning of the last century, children of farmers had to not only relax, but also do hard work. They planted turnips, weeded nettles from their gardens, and harvested crops.
Everyone was busy working on the farm: both the children of hired workers and the children of the owners.

“As was customary in those days, we were, of course, brought up from childhood with reverent fear and awe of the Lord. However, in free time no one was watching us, no one was telling us what to do. And we played, and played, and played... If we had the opportunity, we could play forever! "

According to Astrid herself, she very clearly remembered the moment when her childhood came to an end, and the terrible realization came to her that the games were over forever.

“I remember that moment very well. We really loved playing with the priest’s granddaughter when she came to Nas for the holidays. And then one summer, on her next visit, we were getting ready to start our usual games and suddenly discovered that we had to play It doesn't work anymore. It was a very strange feeling, and we felt very sad, because we absolutely didn't know what else to do if not play."

And a book, of course :)
Book written Amazing Storyteller Astrid Lindgren.

It contains nine short fairy tales. Not related to each other.
I always really loved “No Thieves in the Forest” and “Little Nils Carlson.”
The translation of fairy tales in the book is familiar from childhood - L. Braude.
And in “Princess...” and in “Beloved Sister” - E. Solovyova. However, I don’t remember whether I read these two fairy tales as a child...

Drawings in the book by Ekaterina Kostina. Vashchinskaya. Kostina-Vashchinskaya... I got confused with the change of her surnames :)
I dearly love her “crackle style” drawings :)
So there was no question about buying this book for me - Lindgren + Kostina = I’m happy :)

Well, about the publication.
It's very good! Large format, in a strong cover, on matte chalk, with large, bold font and excellent print quality.

I really approve of this book and shamelessly recommend it for purchase :)

Astrid Lindgren
"Little Nils Carlson"

Publisher - Makhaon
Year - 2015
Binding - cardboard with partial varnishing
Paper - coated
Format - encyclopedic
Pages - 128
Circulation - 8,000 copies

Translation - L. Braude, E. Solovyov
Artist - Ekaterina KOSTINA

Astrid Lindgren's World is a park located five kilometers from Astrid Lindgren's hometown of Vimmerby, Sweden. On its 130,000 m2 you can find famous characters from her works. All entertainment is based on the descriptions given in the books, and gives children the opportunity to immerse themselves in the beloved worlds of Pippi Longstocking, Emil from Lenneberga, Carlson, who lives on the roof, and many other favorite characters of the Swedish writer.

It was here that the famous Swedish storyteller was born and raised. “I don’t want to write for adults,” said Astrid Lindgren, and until the end of her life she was faithful to this credo. The writer completely shared the great French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s belief that all people come from childhood. Thematic amusement park “The World of Astrid Lindgren” for the little people and for all those who have childhood alive in their souls. The park is huge. It is located on an area of ​​8 hectares. It is divided into several zones. They are all located around a single center - a large circular street. This can be seen on the map:

Astrid Lindgren's World is open from May until the first weekend of November. During summer season performances continue all day. It all starts with a small skit at the entrance to the park and continues with the main stage shows with music, singing and dancing. But what is most appreciated by visitors is meeting their favorite characters who communicate with children in both Swedish and English.

The pearl of the park is a miniature model of some of the main streets of Wimmerbrü from the time of the writer’s childhood. All houses are playhouses, they are slightly larger than a child. The windows open, you can go into every house, and in almost every one you can see a scene from your favorite fairy tales. Small benches, lanterns, small squares, alleys... Children's world, the world of childhood.

You can also visit the world of giants and feel very, very small.

Visit the cave where the pirates hid the looted treasures...

Or in a castle...

Or find a real secret underground passage! If you see this house, inside, in the closet, there is a secret descent down into a tunnel that runs under the castle wall and goes straight into the forest.

In addition, in the park there are other places of characters from Astrid Lindgren’s works: Carlson’s house, Rasmus the tramp’s barn, Villa “Chicken” (Pippi’s house) and many others. Indeed, during her creative career, more than eighty works were published from the pen of the storyteller. Each of them is a masterpiece in its own way.

The park has a lot of attractions, but these are not the usual roller coasters and teacups. This is a huge slide that you can explore (by the way, it takes children about half an hour), various corridors, different passages, here you can walk with Carlson on the roofs... In the park you can visit a real ferry across the pond. Children can independently or with the help of a parent pull a rope and swim from one bank of the stream to the other on a wooden raft. There is also a mini-zoo where animals that live in this region of Sweden live.

This park is a real theater. And not only on stages (and there are many of them in the park). Performances take place every minute. The actors get used to their roles and improvise. For children, it is happiness to touch familiar and beloved characters. And when they start playing and talking with them... The star of the park is Pippi Longstocking. A real little anarchist entertains children and puts on a real show. “The work is very hard. We perform in rain or heat, 8 hours a day. But it’s a real pleasure to work with such a wonderful team,” says Lasso Johnson, who plays the role of the elderly bandit Per Coot from the fairy tale “Ronya, the Robber’s Daughter.”

The park consciously tries to avoid commercialization. Like any theme park, there are places to eat. The food here is all homemade, prepared on site, not frozen. The park's organizers are sensitive to children's food. There are 12 different cafes on the territory of the park: snack bars, ice cream, and almost restaurants. Mostly they are located near the entrance to the park. "We offer the best ice cream best brands and Pepsi, but the labels can only be seen in refrigerators and freezers; everything is sold in our own containers,” says Nils-Magnus Angantyr, the park’s general sales manager. “Several years ago we decided not to sell hamburgers in the park. We continue to sell sausages, but only because Emil, Pippi and all the other kids love them.” In addition, everywhere in the park there are trays with sweets and other little things - the delicacies of life.

A visit to the park is not the whole part of the program. You can stroll through the streets of Vimmerby itself and be surprised to learn that the wonderful town has hardly changed over a century, and the houses that are presented in the park still stand today. After strolling along the streets, you can stop by for a cup of coffee and a portion of homemade meatballs with lingonberry sauce in one of the cozy local cafes. If you wish, you can also visit the Astrid Lingren Museum in the town, which, unlike the park, is open all year round.

Today we have no less important topic- exploring the world of the works of the great Astrid Lindgren.

Astrid Lindgren became a professional writer relatively late - at the age of 38, after winning a competition at the Raben and Sjögren publishing house, where she subsequently got a job as an editor in the children's literature department. For my creative career Lindgren wrote about 40 works, and this does not count picture books and collections. In the spring of 2017, the family company Saltkrokan, which deals with Lindgren’s legacy, announced that the Swede’s works have now been translated into a hundred languages. The Oriya language became the hundredth: 35 million residents of the Indian state of Orissa can now read about the adventures of Pippi Longstocking.

Lindgren is loved not only abroad, but also in her native Sweden, where since 2015 her portrait, along with the image of the same Pippi Longstocking, adorns the 20-krona banknote. It is interesting that Lindgren has displaced another world-famous Swedish storyteller, Selma Lagerlöf, from the banknote.

In Sweden, Lindgren was loved, and it was always mutual. The action of many key works happens right there. And in order to understand all the most insignificant everyday details that give the story additional comfort, you need to know more about this country and its structure.

Let’s take Lindgren’s three extremely popular books in Russia, in the narrative outline of which Sweden constantly appears: “Pippi Settles in the Chicken Villa” (1945, translated by L. Lungina in 1965), “Kalle Blumkvist Plays” (1946, translated by N. Gorodinskaya-Wallenius 1959) and “The Kid and Carlson, who lives on the roof” (1955, translated by L. Lungina 1957). Lindgren, of course, has much more works that are replete with typically Swedish realities, but analysis of the entire corpus is a subject for more in-depth study.

In the USSR, Lindgren’s “pioneer” was the translator Lilianna Lungina. Here’s how she herself talks about it in the book based on Oleg Dorman’s film “Interlinear”: “And then one day<...>I brought another batch of these meaningless beautiful books, and one cover immediately attracted attention, because on it was drawn a flying man with a propeller on his back and it was written: “Carlson po tacket,” which means “Carlson on the roof.” I started reading and literally from the very first page I saw that this was not just a book, that this was some kind of miracle, that this was something one could only dream about.”

It is important to note that what is described in the original text is not always reflected in the translation. This is especially typical for Soviet-era translations, when translators sometimes did not have the opportunity to find out what this or that detail means. Astrid Lindgren's world is full of such truly Swedish phenomena that you want to take a closer look at.

Names

Astrid Lindgren's characters wear typical Swedish names: Eva-Lotta, Anders, Kalle - short for Karl, Bettan - for Elisabeth, Bosse - for Boo, etc. Although the dreamer who brought Astrid Lindgren real success has an atypical name - Pippi Longstocking. Strange name invented by the writer's daughter Karin. One day she fell ill with pneumonia and asked her mother to tell a fairy tale about Pippi Longstocking. So Astrid Lindgren began to invent unusual stories- matches the name of the heroine. The first listeners were the daughter and her friends, who also really liked the red-haired girl. And in 1944, a fateful event occurred - Lindgren slipped, twisted her leg and could not walk for some time. In order not to get bored in bed, she decided to write down the accumulated stories about Pippi. Lindgren gave one copy of the text to her daughter for a decade, and sent the second to the large publishing house Bonniers. Attached to the manuscript was a letter in which Lindgren called Pippi Longstocking a Superman and asked not to report herself to the guardianship authorities, because her own children were well brought up and did not look like a radical heroine for that time. The publishing house, however, did not see the book's potential. But in 1945, another publishing house, Raben and Sjögren, undertook to publish it.

I wonder what's in Swedish main character Lindgren's name is Pippi. It is clear that Lungina could not keep the girl’s name unchanged due to clear connotations - this is probably how Pippi turned out. There are, however, later translations by Lyudmila Braude and Nina Belyakova, in which the girl is named in the Swedish manner - Pippi. French translators had a similar problem - in France the heroine is known as Fifi.

In 1946, a book was published about the adventures of thirteen-year-old Kalle Blumkvist, who was passionate about detective work. In her youth, Lindgren worked as a secretary for the famous Swedish criminologist Harri Söderman, and the knowledge she acquired helped her with a detective story for children. Swedish readers liked the book so much that it was immediately - before Lindgren's other works - filmed. A new word has even appeared in Swedish: “blomkvistare” - which means “amateur detective”. The writer created a Swedish - more humane - alternative to hard-boy literature, popular at that time in the English-speaking world. To replace dark rainy cities pulp fiction came to a cozy Swedish town during the summer holidays. It is interesting that the world-famous detective from Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, Mikael Blomkvist, according to the author himself, is not by chance Kalle's namesake. In translations into different languages, Calle - just like Pippi - has different names. IN English version the hero was renamed Bill Bergson and therefore the connection with Stieg Larsson's trilogy that appeared later disappeared.

As for Carlson on the roof, he goes by his last name. What Carlson's name is is unknown. The baby’s name is Svante Svanteson, but everyone calls him Lillebror - which literally means “ younger brother“- in this case, Lungina’s translation solution seems brilliant.

Lindgren's works become especially cozy largely due to the fact that their characters are constantly fiddling around in the kitchen, enjoying the aroma of almost finished food and devouring some buns. Swedish children really spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking with their parents. This is especially noticeable on the eve of important holidays. The main holiday of the year, Christmas, is associated with the special concept of “julbak” - Christmas pastries. All family members gather in the kitchen to prepare gingerbread cookies, saffron buns and homemade toffees - after all, there should be enough until the New Year. So Pippi Longstocking bakes gingerbread cookies in the shape of hearts (translated into cakes), which are usually made with a small hole: then a satin ribbon is threaded through it and the cookies are hung on the Christmas tree.

When it comes to Astrid Lindgren, the first thing that comes to mind is cinnamon rolls and meatballs from Carlson, familiar to us thanks to Ikea. There is no dish that reminds Swedes more of home than meatballs (or meatballs): it is customary to eat them with boiled potatoes and lingonberry jam. Swedes' favorite delicacy is a cinnamon bun. According to statistics, a Swede eats about 200 pieces annually. This is facilitated by the main Swedish tradition called fika. Swedes gather several times a day to drink coffee, eat a bun and have heart-to-heart conversations. The Kid's family sits down for traditional fika by the fireplace every evening - and it's the boy's favorite time. Fika is also arranged in the baker’s garden after circus performance, prepared by Kalle Blumkvist and his friends. Pippi Longstocking also treats Annika and Tommy to coffee and buns on her terrace. Interestingly, in Sweden they taste coffee at quite a early age, so Lindgren's young characters take an active part in the fic. Coffee can be served not only with a cinnamon bun, but also with some other dessert. For example, Eva-Lotta’s mother had a sweet sockerkaka pie, which is also enjoyed at Carlson’s. Traditionally in Sweden it is a sponge cake with a hole in the middle, to which cardamom, vanilla sugar or lemon zest may be added. It’s interesting that Ikea has a series of baking products that bear the name of this sweet cupcake, only in Russian it suffered the same fate as the name Pippi: they changed one letter in the name, and it turned out to be “sokkertaka”.

Swedes great attention pay proper nutrition. For example, Baby’s mother doesn’t want him to eat a lot of sugar and slips him cauliflower for dinner, much to his displeasure. But still, children in Lindgren’s works constantly eat candy. Now in Sweden there is a tradition of lördagsgodis - Saturday sweets, but this was not always the case. Only in the 1950s did the Swedes decide to give children candy once a week - on Saturdays. In many families, this has become a real ritual: to wake up lazily on the weekend and go to a candy store, where you can pick up a bag of all sorts of sweets by weight - this type of candy is called lösgodis. Then doctors came to the conclusion that to reduce the risk of caries, it is better to eat a lot of sweets once a week than a little every day. But when Lindgren wrote her works, this was not yet known, and the satisfied characters eat candy almost unhindered. Particularly popular in Lindgren's books are caramels (karameller), raspberry gummies (geléhallon) and special toffees (kola). There are also boat-shaped licorice candies (lakritsbåtar) and chocolate cigarettes (chokladcigaretter), which have been banned in some European Union countries since the early 2000s in order not to promote smoking. For dessert, people in Sweden like to eat fruktsoppa - berry or fruit jelly, which is poured into a plate and eaten with a spoon (translated as “compote”). It is this that the Kid finishes before running to Carlson. Pippi claims that most of all she loves rabarberkräm - rhubarb jelly, and only then the police.

Swedes spend a lot of time outdoors, so picnics and barbecues are common occurrence. All thanks to the Allemansrätten law, according to which Swedes have the right to be in nature without any restrictions (but not very close to private property). For a Swede, spending the whole day indoors without going outside is nonsense. Nearby park or forest - natural continuation living room. What Russians and Swedes certainly have in common is their love of picking berries and mushrooms. So Pippi and her friends go on a hike. In the forest she cooks on a fire a traditional dish fläskpannkaka, which literally translates as “pork pancake” (translated as pork and pancakes). In reality, this dish is more like a pie or casserole with meat.

Traditions and social order

Many people remember the scene from “The Kid and Carlson” with the birthday celebration, including thanks to Carlson’s now famous remark that “eight pies with one candle” are better than the other way around. In Sweden, birthday celebrations do not have the Russian scale, although many families nevertheless have a tradition of a “birthday tray”. In the morning, all loved ones prepare a festive breakfast, place it on a tray along with a lit candle ( main element Swedish comfort) and go to wake up the birthday boy, taking gifts in advance. They sing a festive song, which is not sung to the tune of “Happy birthday” - the Swedes have their own special “Ja må du leva” (“Long live ...”), ending with the obligatory four times “Hurray!”

In one of the chapters, Baby's mother is not at home; she left a note that she had gone to the laundry to do laundry (tvättstugan). Indeed, many apartments in large Swedish cities still do not have their own washing machine; more often it is replaced by a shared laundry room in the basement of the building - a situation that is not unique to Sweden. In the laundry, as a rule, there is a schedule - the washing time must be booked in advance. General rules are an inexhaustible reservoir of conflicts that flare up between neighbors in wall notices. They are even published in Sweden humorous collections with these advertisements. You can find pearls that have nothing to do with washing: “Who hammers nails on Christmas Eve? What's wrong with your head?"

Not only the Baby’s mother, but also Pippi is busy putting things in order: at the very beginning of the first book, she starts fredagsstädning - Friday cleaning. Indeed, in Sweden there was a tradition of cleaning the house or workplace on the eve of the weekend. The Swedes have a special attitude towards Friday: fredagsmys is widely known - a tradition of Friday coziness, when in the evening you can sit comfortably with your family on the sofa, light a floor lamp, turn on your favorite movie and watch it with chips or a hot pie. As an alternative, there is the tradition of fredagspub - a Friday night trip to the pub with friends or colleagues.

The holidays that Pippi remembers are also associated with cleaning - skurlov. Previously, autumn holidays were called this because it was assumed that this time should be devoted to harvesting and collecting potatoes. Then the holidays became simply autumn holidays, and in 2016, Education Minister Gustav Fridolin proposed renaming them reading holidays. Politicians hope that such a rebranding will increase the interest of children and young people in books. Their hopes are not accidental: at the end of February - beginning of March in Sweden they go on a “sports holiday”, and many actually go skiing in the mountains or engage in other sports. Swedish schoolchildren also have holidays for Easter and Christmas, but the main holidays remain, of course, the summer ones, although in Sweden they are shorter than in Russia: the school year ends in mid-June and begins in mid-August. On the last day of school before the start of the cherished holidays, Swedish schoolchildren certainly perform “Ida’s Summer Song,” the text of which was written by Astrid Lindgren.

When Pippi goes to school, she cannot understand that the teacher cannot be addressed as “you”, but must be called “fröken”. Here Lindgren acted as a harbinger of future reforms. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the so-called du-reformen took place in Sweden, after which addressing “you” became neutral: now in Swedish schools teachers are addressed by “you” and by their first name. In kindergartens, the address “fröken” has been preserved, but this is because it is often difficult for young children to remember the name of the teacher (especially if there are several of them). That is, in preschool institutions the children say exactly the same as Pippi in the book: “du, fröken” - “fröken” and “you”. Moreover, this is how both teachers and male employees are addressed.

The police come for Pippi Longstocking, an orphan, to take her to an orphanage. Fru Appelgren threatens to hand over Kalle Blomkvist and his friends to a correctional home. Indeed, in the 1930s-1980s, quite a lot of Swedish children were in orphanages. However, thanks to a number of reforms, there are now no orphanages as such in Sweden. There are so-called “family homes”, that is, families that become foster children for a time or permanently for a fee, as well as a child adoption system. Astrid Lindgren herself had to use the services of such “ family home”, only in Denmark, where the writer’s son Lars, born out of wedlock, spent the first years of his life: in the 1920s it was impossible to become a mother out of wedlock. The father of the unborn child was married (albeit in the process of divorce), it was impossible to give out his name, and during childbirth in Sweden information about both parents was required. This was not required in Denmark, and Lindgren went to Copenhagen to give birth quietly. At that time she was not yet a famous writer, she rented a modest apartment with a friend, and suffered from poverty and loneliness. Lindgren could not immediately take her son with her to Stockholm and left him with her adoptive mother, to whom she remained grateful until the end of her life. The writer took her son away only when the boy was three years old.

Another interesting aspect social order from Astrid Lindgren's time can be seen in a minor detail of "Blumkvist's Calle". One article in the newspaper that Kalle brings at the request of Uncle Einar is called “Why are taxes rising?” (“Varför så höga skatter?”). Obviously, Astrid Lindgren was interested in this question back in 1946, when the book was published, but the writer openly opposed tax system later - in 1976. Then the newspaper Expressen published Lindgren’s famous feuilleton “Pomperipossa in Monismania,” written in the form of a fairy tale. Pomperipossa - famous fairy tale character, like Baba Yaga, and the country of Monismania was taken from a dystopian film directed by Kenne Fant, released a year before the article, about a state with a one-party totalitarian regime. In the feuilleton, Astrid Lindgren is indignant that, according to Swedish laws, she is forced to pay 102% of taxes. The publication was followed by a public discussion, during which the Minister of Finance accused Lindgren of not being able to count and called for a return to writing fairy tales. Lindgren retorted that the Minister of Finance was taking away her bread because he himself did not stop telling fairy tales. Since the 1970s, Lindgren has often spoken on various socially significant topics. Thus, she was against disciplinary violence against children, and many associate the introduction of a legislative ban in 1979 with her activities. In addition, in the 1980s, Lindgren, together with veterinarian Kristina Forslund, began a campaign for animal rights. In 1987, Prime Minister Ingvar Karlsson even presented the writer with a bill for her anniversary (which, however, did not live up to Lindgren’s expectations). In 1990, a book was published - an expanded and revised collection of articles by Lindgren and Forslund on the topic - entitled “My Cow Wants to Have Fun” (“Min ko vill ha roligt”).

Games and toys

Games occupied an important place in Lindgren's life. The famous Swede Christina Björk, the author of one of the most popular picture books in the world, “Linnea in the Artist’s Garden,” dedicated another picture book to Lindgren’s childhood. The leitmotif in the book is a quote from the writer - “It’s a real miracle that we didn’t play to death in childhood!” The endless fun described in Lindgren's books is borrowed from her childhood memories. In particular, Björk describes the game “Don't Step on the Floor,” which little Astrid loved to play with her older brother and two younger sisters. It was necessary to move around the furniture in the room and not step on the floor: they jumped from the bureau to the desk, from the table to the bed, and so on. Pippi Longstocking plays exactly the same game in her kitchen with Tommy and Annika.

During Astrid Lindgren's time, miniature steam engines were popular in Sweden. The Kid and Carlson, as well as Pippi, play with such a toy. In 1974, Pierre Isaksson even wrote a song about steam engines called “Let me go down to the basement.” The hit managed to take first place in the national hit parade.

Geography

The action of "Kalle Blumkvist" takes place in the fictional city of Lillköping. Its name is typically Swedish. The part “-choping” is related in meaning to the verb att köpa - “to buy”. That is, cities whose names contain the “-köping” component were places with fairs or markets: take Jönköping, Linköping or Norrköping, for example. Lindgren herself grew up on the Näs farm near the town of Vimmerby, which served as the prototype for the fictional town of Bullerby, where there is now an amusement park based on the works of the writer. The “-by” component in the toponym is also not accidental and means “village”.

Storgatan (Sturgatan) - Big Street - appears in both "Pippi" and "Calla". This name is given to the main shopping street in almost all Swedish cities. Thanks to this toponym, Astrid Lindgren's fictional cities become even more "average". Lindgren herself lived for 60 years on another street in Stockholm - on Dalagatan, 46, where her museum-apartment has been operating since 2015. The writer's family has kept everything unchanged: here you can see the typewriter, the books that Lindgren read, and even the carpet by the bed, worn out in the places where the writer put her feet every morning. A visit must be booked in advance; excursions are available at different languages, including in Russian. It was in this apartment that the writer died at the age of 94.

After her death, the Swedish government established the world's main prize for children's literature (something like the Nobel Prize) in memory of Astrid Lindgren. 12 jury members - specialists in the field of children's literature - annually award a prize of 5 million Swedish kronor (about 35 million rubles). Choosing the best work for children is not an easy task. Astrid Lindgren herself was once asked what a children's book should be, and she answered: “I assure you, I have thought about this question for a long time, but I can’t find any other answer: it should be good.”

Three more places in Sweden for fans of Astrid Lindgren

1. Unibacken. Museum on the island of Djurgården in Stockholm. The writer was directly involved in its creation, consulting set designer Marit Törnqvist. The pearl of the museum is the train of fairy tales, which carries visitors through the scenes of the main works of the writer. Lindgren herself wrote the ten-minute accompanying text, which Törnqvist recalls took several weeks to create. The name of the museum is no coincidence - it was the name of the farm where Madiken, one of Lindgren’s heroines, lived.

2. Farm Nas. House in the historical province of Småland, where Astrid Lindgren was born. Lindgren herself restored the interior and brought it closer to the original. You can take a walk in orchards, as well as see a permanent exhibition dedicated to Lindgren, or a temporary exhibition.

3. Astrid Lindgren's grave. The writer is buried in the cemetery in the city of Vimmerby along with her parents. On the grave lies a small stone with Lindgren's autograph, and next to it stands Mailbox. During her lifetime, the writer loved to correspond: with loved ones, colleagues and readers. The royal archive contains about 75 thousand of her letters. More and more epistolary novels are being published based on her correspondence. After Lindgren’s death, fans brought more and more letters to the grave, and to prevent the wind from carrying them throughout the cemetery, a mailbox was installed nearby.

The Astrid Lindgren Museum in Stockholm is located on the island of Djurgården. It is in the very center of the Swedish capital. It's called Junibakken. But this museum is completely different from what we are used to. There are no decorous shelves with exhibits, no signs “do not run” or “do not touch with hands.” Children's museums in Sweden, and especially Junibakken, are completely different. They are more like entertainment centers. Everything here is dedicated to making sure the kids have fun. Children can run, jump, have fun and grab everything with their hands. This is what the writer herself wished. Therefore, Junibakken is not only dedicated to Astrid Lindgren. But let's talk about this in more detail.

Astrid Lindgren Museum in Stockholm: how to get there

The island of Djurgården has a lot of greenery. There are several museums here - for example, Vasa, dedicated to ships, and an exposition of the northern countries, where there is a real shamanic drum. All of them are located in a green area called Galerparken. Most visitors get to children's museum on foot. After all, most often tourists come there who walk around the center of Stockholm. When you get to the island, you should turn right. And there you can easily find the Astrid Lindgren Museum following numerous signs.

Books famous writer became the main topic interesting exhibition. In addition, there is a monument to her in front of the entrance. Public transport stops near the island, as well as tourist buses. And you can get to the island itself by boat (river bus). The museum is open all year round. It is open from ten in the morning to five in the evening. In July, when the white nights arrive, the exhibition is extended until six in the afternoon.

Where fairy tales live

The Astrid Lindgren Museum in Stockholm was opened in 1996. More than four hundred thousand people come here every year. The museum is a real square with street lamps, But unusual houses. The heroes of fairy tales live there. But not only Astrid Lindgren's characters have a place there. There are the Moomins, Carlson, Pippi Longstocking, and other heroes of stories created by Swedish and Scandinavian fairy tale writers, for example, the Jack of All Trades, the talking kitten Findus, and many others. Children can go into any house and meet all the characters, if they are at home, of course. They are not forbidden to cook in Mummy Mama's kitchen. And here they offer little visitors to ride on roller coasters, sit on a fairy tale throne, fly on an airplane and ride a Mulle Meka scooter. Here children often read the books themselves and look at illustrations for them made by the best artists, and are a little distracted from Internet games.

Train

Of course, children do not come to this museum alone, but with their parents. And if they already know all the fairy tales by heart or visited the Astrid Lindgren Museum in Stockholm a long time ago, when they themselves were still kids, then they help their offspring by standing in line for them on a special train. He's fabulous too. This train is considered the most interesting museum attraction. Its carriages give you the opportunity to travel to real world, created by a Swedish writer. They go up, down and turn so that little passengers can visit different scenes from the books. They were created based on drawings by a famous artist who was a friend of Astrid Lindgren and illustrated her fairy tales. But be aware that photography is not allowed here. During the trip, the guide reveals secrets fairyland. He speaks twelve different languages, including Russian.

Pippi Longstocking's House

After the train excursion, the Astrid Lindgren Museum in Stockholm offers another interesting place for children. This is Villa "Chicken". This famous house, where Pippi Longstocking lives. There they can ride a horse with capital letters. After all, that's her name. The horse is the embodiment of Pippi's dream. This girl has amazing physical strength, and when she drinks coffee in the garden, she carries the animal with her. The horse lives on the terrace. There is also a theater in the house called “Junibakken”. Here the actors present different fairy tales and history.

Exhibitions, shops and restaurant

The Junibakken Museum, like all institutions this kind, has many additional interesting places. These are exhibitions. Unlike permanent exhibition they change and, as a rule, are playful. The restaurant, where parents and children grab a bite to eat after a busy excursion, looks like a traveling circus. In addition, they serve an excellent raspberry drink and delicious homemade buns. And from here it opens amazing view to Stockholm and its canals. What can visitors to a place like the Astrid Lindgren Museum take away with them? Books by the writer, of course, but there are also toys, various souvenirs, films, posters.

Astrid Lindgren Museum in Stockholm: reviews

People who come to Sweden with children often come here. Many tourists, including from Russia, who visited Junibakken, write that it has one and only drawback. These are huge queues. And the Swedish mentality is such that you can’t take a seat. If for some reason you had to move away, you must stand at the end again. But in all other aspects, this museum is, according to visitors, simply a fabulous paradise for children. Here, adults can plunge headlong into the world of Scandinavian fantasy. But they feel a little sad, because they understand that they can’t get their childhood back. And the kids are just happy here. It is very difficult for mothers to take their children away from here after excursions. Children are ready to spend the whole day here and are completely delighted. The park around the museum is also very beautiful, especially in summer. Flowering trees, bushes,

The interview was conducted by Yuri Gurman, Radio Sweden.

- What's good about Sweden?

- The best thing is that this is my country. Here I am at home, I am at home in the old peasant culture and in Stockholm.

It’s easy for me to love people, it’s easy for me to love everything around me... Here I feel at home much more than in any other country.

Astrid Lindgren received me in her apartment on Dalagatan Street, now there is something like an apartment-museum, where people are allowed in for a fee. We sat in the living room, where everything was simple and spacious. An old sofa, few books, spartan, one might say, furnishings. Astrid Lindgren with a gold pendant on her chest, which turned out to be, in fact, a thick magnifying glass, she could no longer read without it, her assistant was fiddling with something in the kitchen, everything was very homely...

- What's the worst thing about Sweden?
It is difficult to answer this question; there is also a lot of absurdity here. I can get furious and desperate when I hear about fat men flying from Sweden to Thailand and buying little girls for themselves. And then I'm on the verge of not wanting to be Swedish.

She also didn't like the power of money.

- Culture has become for many economic culture, giving way to real culture.

When I ask about money, Astrid Lindgren laughs:

- I could be much wealthier, but I make sure that I don’t have much money left.

At the time of this interview, Astrid Lindgren had seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, and she lamented that she would like to see them much more often than she can. And laughs:

These are the kind of journalists that get in the way all the time...

All her money was brought to her by her characters. Most of all, of course, Pippi Longstocking, or Pippi, as she was first called in Russia, where the main character has always remained, of course, Karlsson, who lives on the roof.

Karlsson, he’s like a spoiled child who thinks he’s the best, the most beautiful, the most wonderful, many years ago I wrote his song,” Astrid Lindgren sings, “Who do you think you are?” Who do you think you are? Yes, you are nothing against me, la-la-la, la-la-la... Karlsson for me is a somewhat distant figure, Pippi and, above all, Emil from Lenneberga are closest to my heart. Emil is from my childhood, from Småland, and he lives among people, among peasants, who are well known to me from my youth.

We talked for a long time that time. Astrid Lindgren talked about her children, about her unhealing wound: her son Lasse passed away in 1966, about her daughter, about their children, about great-grandchildren, one of whom, a four-year-old, especially unique, kept repeating:

You’re old, you’re old, and so on all the way,” laughs Astrid Lindgren.

And she asked a lot of questions. It looks like it was an interview within an interview. She was interested in how old I was, whether I was married to a Swede or a Russian, how many children I had, and she praised me when she learned that they read her books in both Swedish and Russian. When I told her that at a meeting of our editors with listeners in St. Petersburg, they asked her to compose a fairy tale, Astrid Lindgren began:

Once upon a time there lived a boy whose name was... whose name was Yuri. And he came to Sweden and settled here, and one fine day, he... And then you yourself will continue,” said the writer. To this I said that I couldn’t compete with Astrid Lindgren, to which she agreed.

Before the interview, when I approached her door, that's when I heard her humming something. And it was known that Astrid Lindgren always sings something, even when walking down the street. And I plucked up the courage (impudence?) and asked her to sing something. And she sang:

Sorry little child

Wandering through the fields in the cold

Snow in mittens and boots

And eyes full of tears...

It’s hard for children now, they don’t understand, I can’t say that it’s hard for children in Sweden, here they have a pretty good time,” notes Astrid Lindgren, “but if you look at the whole world, it becomes incredibly sad when you see how children are running from their homeland and seek refuge in other countries. Their entire childhood was destroyed. I feel very sorry for the children.

Sometimes you think what she would say today... She also talked then about her struggle for the rights of animals, which she believed were not treated humanely.

My days fly by so that I don’t have time to blink. Don't think I have even a minute of free time. I'm trying to find time to go for a walk in the park to get some exercise. There are a lot of people who don't know what to do to pass the time, but I don't know what they want from life. I never had extra time.

Astrid Lindgren introduced me to the program of one of her days: they came from the film studio, discussed the future film, the next visitors asked about her good friend - photographer Anna Rivkin-Brick, who was born in Gomel and died in 1970 in Israel, her bust stood on the bookstore shelf, they made nine photo books together, Astrid Lindgren wrote texts for them. The visitors were going to write a book about Anna Rivkin. Then there was the actress of "Dramaten", Stockholm drama theater, who got the role of Pippi Long stocking. Then there was a photographer, then a newspaper editor, and the day was practically over.

Every year, I said, as autumn approaches, I am asked: who will receive the Nobel Prize in Literature this year? And what do you answer, asked Astrid Lindgren? I always answered: Astrid Lindgren.

I don't need to wish for this. I had already received the “Children’s Nobel Prize”; the children themselves established it, and I could not refuse it. And with the money they collected, an orphanage for homeless children in St. Petersburg will be set up.

This "Children's Nobel Prize" was collected by subscription on the initiative of a small resident of Hedemura, a town in the province of Dalarna, who decided that it was a blatant injustice not to award the Nobel Prize to Astrid Lindgren. They raised a lot of money, the writer told me.

The children themselves wanted the money to go to St. Petersburg, there were 300,000 there, quite comparable to Nobel Prize, Astrid Lindgren laughs.

At the time of that conversation, the writer was 85 years old. For almost 50 years, she, according to her, wrote 35 books, not counting photo books. World famous. Status of the nation's conscience. But what were, after all, the highest moments of her eventful life?

The highest moments in a woman's life are when she has children. So it was with me. Two children were born to me. And the same moments - the birth of grandchildren. And all this fuss with prizes, awards, I quickly forget all this, I have a whole list of them, I’m an honorary doctor there, I’m an honorary doctor here...

In parting, Astrid Lindgren said:

- Say hello to your children and your entire country!

I conveyed it then, I convey it now...