“One cold and windy autumn evening many years ago a newspaper parcel was found on the doorstep of the Home for Moomin Foundlings. In that parcel I lay, quite small and shivering with cold.”

The Memoirs of Moominpappa
Tove Jansson

So begins Moominpappa’s remarkable Memoirs, written to delight his son Moomintroll and friends.

What emerges is a story about storytelling itself as one fabulous tale follows another, and not just about Moominpappa but Sniff and Snufkin’s fathers too – the rather muddled Muddler and the carefree Joxter. Add to this mix the genius inventor Hodgkins, and a grand finale in which Moominpappa rescues a shipwrecked Moominmamma from the waves, and the fun becomes irresistible.

The Memoirs of Moominpappa, was first published in the UK in 1950 under the title, The Exploits of Moominpappa. In the early 1960s Tove Jansson substantially revised this text, redrawing pictures and reinstating her preferred title.

The Memoirs of Moominpappa on the publisher Sort of Books’ website.

The book was first published in Swedish as Muminpappans bravader. Skrivna av honom själv in 1950. The revised editions Muminpappans bravader and Muminpappans memoarer were published in 1956 and 1968.