How Tove Jansson and the Moomins continue to inspire

In 2017, exactly 60 years after the Moomins were created, a new Moomins animated TV series has surpassed its crowdfunding target, a Moomin Museum has opened and the first UK retrospective of Moomin creator Tove Jansson's stunning book illustrations and art has been scheduled. To celebrate all of this Moomin excitement, we headed to Finland to find out about the artist, her characters and the new Moomin reboot.

Sitting in the late Tove Jansson's studio apartment in Helsinki, her niece – Sophia Jansson – is wondering how the Moomins artist survived with no kitchen in her home. “I suppose she lived on a diet of coffee and cigarettes,” she jokes.

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Sammy Maine

Sammy Maine was a founding member of the Creative Bloq team way back in the early 2010s, working as a Commissioning Editor. Her interests cover graphic design in music and film, illustration and animation. Since departing, Sammy has written for The Guardian, VICE, The Independent & Metro, and currently co-edits the quarterly music journal Gold Flake Paint.