by Tove Jansson
“The best thing is probably to turn it down,” Jonna repeated.
Mari said, “Don’t do that. I think it’ll be all right.”
“You do? You really think so?”
“Yes, I do. I’m going to need a long time for these illustrations. They have to be good.”
“But I mean,” said Jonna, quite confused, “illustrations…”
“Exactly. They have to be good, and that takes time. You may not realize how important they are for me.”
“Of course I do!” Jonna burst out, and she launched into a long, earnest discussion of the importance of illustration, the painstaking labour, the concentration, the need to be undisturbed if you’re going to do your best work.
Mari was hardly listening. A daring thought was taking shape in her mind. She began to anticipate a solitude of her own, peaceful and full of possibility. She felt something close to exhilaration, of a kind that people can permit themselves when they are blessed with love.
Other Tove Jansson titles
published as eBooks by Sort Of Books
The Summer Book
A Winter Book
Travelling Light
The True Deceiver
Copyright
Photo credits
Inside front cover: Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä © Per Olov Jansson
Inside back cover: Seascape © Margareta Strömstedt; Tove Jansson potting © Beata Bergström; other four photos of Tove Jansson © Per Olov Jansson; flowers on Klovharu © Pentti Eistola.
p.1 (cat) © Tuulikki Pietilä
p.17 (Tove Jansson in Italy, 1979) © Pentti Eistola
p.128 (shore) © Tuulikki Pietilä
Fair Play (Rent spel) © Tove Jansson 1989
English translation © Thomas Teal and Sort Of Books 2007
Introduction © Ali Smith 2007
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.
This English translatinon first published in 2007 by
Sort Of Books, PO Box 18678, London NW3 2FL.
Typeset in Goudy and GillSans to a design by Henry Iles.
Printed in Italy by Legoprint.
128pp
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Print ISBN 978–0–95489–953–0
ePub ISBN 978–1–908745–20–0
Table of Contents
Title Page
Epigraph
Acknowledgments
Introduction by Ali Smith
Changing Pictures
Videomania
The Hunter
Catfishing
One Time in June
Fog
Killing George
Travels with a Konica
B-Western
In the Great City of Phoenix
Wladyslaw
Fireworks
Cemeteries
Jonna’s Pupil
Viktoria
Stars
The Letter
Copyright