Beautifully crafted and deceptively simple-seeming, these stories are like pieces of scattered light. -- Ali Smith These stories show a side of (Tove Jansson) that may be new to some British readers, who perhaps think of her, if at all, as a writer of charming stories for children. They are as tough as good rope, these stories, as smooth and odd and beautiful as sea-worn driftwood, as full of light and air and wind as the Nordic summer. We are lucky to have them collected at last. -- Philip Pullman These stories are infused with such a strong sense of Tove Jansson's character that by the last page you feel on almost intimate terms with her. Determined, indignant, fearless as a child, we see how she develops - have the luxury of glimpsing her as an old lady too, still determined, still indignant. -- Esther Freud Meeting the real Tove in these stories has been a an exciting and unnerving experience - a bit like meeting my own guardian angel. -- Frank Cottrell Boyce
