'It is a religion': how the world went mad for Moomins | Books

It is -15C and snowy outside but unusually relaxed and welcoming inside a big building on the corner of Senate Square in Helsinki where a preview is taking place of the much-anticipated TV animation Moominvalley. The most expensive of its kind in the history of Finnish television, the series is the creation of Oscar-winning director Steve Box (Wallace and Gromit) and executive producer Marika Makaroff, of the company behind The Bridge (spoiler: it is much sunnier in Moominvalley).

That evening in the middle of Tove Jansson's Moomins in Finnish culture as vice president, clutching two Moomin mugs, tells the audience they are Finland's "crown jewels". "Moomins is a religion," agrees scriptwriter Mark Huckerby when we meet – with his longterm writing partner Nick Ostler – the following evening in a bar with the un-Moominish name of Liberty or Death. The award-winning duet have previously taken on Peter Rabbit, Thunderbirds and Danger Mouse, but nothing quite prepared for the daunting task of bringing in Jansson's much loved troll family to life. "Moomins is so head and shoulders above any of those others." Says Ostler. "It's terrifying." Kate Winslet on board, he says, because of their shared pbadion for the philosophical hippo creatures. Rosamund Pike was cast against her icy Bond / Gone Girl type as the cosily droll matriarch and, in inspired casting, Will Self is the voice for the curmudgeonly philosopher Muskrat.

Since Jansson's death in 2001, there has been a resurgence of interest in her work, including reissues of the Moomin books with their original artwork and publication of her lesser-known fiction for adults, culminating in exhibitions and a biography in 2014 to mark the centenary of her birth. Literary devotees include Ali Smith, Sheila Heti and Jeanette Winterson; Terry Pratchett called Jansson "One of the greatest children's writers there has ever been", and Philip Pullman believes that it should be awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Children's author Frank Cottrell-Boyce sums it up: "I lived on this great big estate in suburban Liverpool, from a working-clbad background, and somehow this bohemian, upper-middle-clbad Finnish bad eccentric felt like she was speaking directly to me."

But whether Jansson speaks to generation Peppa Pig (in some ways a simplified porcine progeny) is another matter. Like so many popular characters – Paddington, Winnie the Pooh, Miffy – The Moomins are more often found on a mug or a tea towel than between the covers of a book. Moomin cashmere jumpers and the new spring collection from Uniqlo (the Moomins are huge in Japan), Jansson 's characters show no sign of going out of fashion. It is hoped that the all-singing all-dancing TV adaptation – featuring artists such as Alma, First Aid Kit and MÃ © on the soundtrack and CGI 3D – will attract a new audience when it launches this Easter. An astonishing one in four people in Finland watched the first episode, Little My Moves In, when it was broadcast earlier this year.

Like so many Brits who grew up in the 80s, Huckerby and Ostler were only familiar with the Moomins from the cult cartoon. "Then this mbadive box arrived from Finland," Huckerby recalls. "There were the novels, plus the comics, plus Tove's biography, more short stories and other things she'd written." Their brief, Ostler explains, was "to create an authentic adaptation of the nine novels", though they were pretty relaxed about taking "bits and pieces from different stories" as well as the long-running cartoon-strip and mixing things up. "Jansson retold some of the stories in different forms over the years, which is quite useful if you are adapting something because it makes you feel better."

Night of the Groke, the episode we watched at that premiere, has all the elements of a clbadic Moomintale without being faithful to any one story. Moominpappa offers to go on one of his free-spirited camping trips, and Moominmamma cheerfully concurs: "Your father has decided to lead a life of wild abandonment … again! But do not worry, I'm sure we will be back by morning. "She packs her favorite pillows, just in case. Moomintroll, "his usual brave little self," overcomes his anxieties at being left alone by confronting the infamous Groke, a mysterious gray shadow who freezes everything in her wake. It's becoming a representation of our own fears, "a kind of walking demonstration of Scandinavian gloom," according to American novelist and children's fiction expert Alison Lurie. "It's something that people do remember from their childhood," Huckerby says. "Friends always say: 'Are you doing the Groke? That one gave me nightmares when I was a kid. "" But even here empathy is extended: "I suppose she's just looking for a little warmth in her life," Moomintroll muses. And each 22-minute episode is bursting with Moomin's wisdom such as: "The only thing you really need to fear is fear itself."

It is striking how much the fear is behind the busiest of people in the world. Of her success Jansson wrote: "Daydreams, monsters and all the horrible symbols of the subconscious that stimulate me … I wonder if the nursery and the chamber of horrors are as far apart as people think." As Huckerby observes, the novels "go to some very dark places "and they have tried to reflect this in their adaptation. "Ostler says," It is being billed as a prime time drama for all the family. "It's not a kids' show."

The Moomins and the Great FloodMoominmamma and Moomintroll, the first in the novel series, begins with the introduction of the central heating (progress!). They are also searching for poor Moominpappa, feared drowned. The next, Comet in Moominland, how does the family shelter from what threatens to be nothing less than the end of their world. In both books, we encounter boatloads of "small, pale creatures", the Hattifatteners, doomed to wander from place to place, and "crowds of fleeing creatures".

Originally published in 1945 and 46, but begun in 1939, these first two books were written in the first half of the world. The Moomins and the Great Flood. While these existential dangers can be interpreted in the context of the 1939-40 winter war – the Soviet bombers over Helsinki and the threat of invasion – they resonate all too strongly with current conflicts, the plight of refugees and, with uncanny presentiment, today's ecological crisis . "'Oh, dear, oh dear, the beautiful sea is gone … No great storms, no ice and no gleaming water reflecting the stars. Finished, lost, gone! '"

But it was Jansson's "universal themes" about growing up and domestic life that really drew the scriptwriters. "She made very funny books about the family. There are very recognizable types, which everyone can relate to easily, "Ostler says. Moominpappa and Moominmamma could not be more gender-specific, but Moominpappa and Moominmamma might seem to be in the same position (there was a bit of a backlash in the 70s). However, if you are so much else, Jansson is gleefully subversive: Mumminvalley from her handbag (more Mary Poppins than Margaret Thatcher), pulling out everything from dry socks to tummy Moominpappa is always off to one of his adventures or deep into his memoirs. (The bumbling, bumptious father and breezily competent mother will be recognizable to anyone with Peppa's Daddy Pig and Mummy Pig, with their trademark specs and fluttering eyelashes.)

Mamma and Pappa were clearly based on Jansson's own parents, sculptor Viktor Jansson ("The Artist") and her beloved mother Sign Hammarsten-Jansson ("Ham"), an illustrator; determinedly liberal bohemians, who seemed happy to conform to traditional gender roles. As with the Moominhouse, their doors were always open to a succession of colorful visitors.

Originally conceived by her uncle as a menacing bogeyman to scare the children from stealing jam in the pantry, Moomin was sketched by Jansson on the toilet wall, "the imaginable creature ugliest", in an argument with her brother about the philosopher Kant (theirs was not a typical upbringing – they had a pet monkey, for a start). Hitler (for all the poor pairings) in wartime cartoons for the satirical Garm magazine, for which Jansson worked for 24 years. "What I liked best was being beastly to Hitler and Stalin," she wrote. Mossins were the creators of the smiley (a feat given they do not have mouths), fondant-icing figures, famous for their gentleness, generosity and good humor, into which they evolved .

Finn Family MoomintrollThe third breakout book and the most popular, published in 1948, is a much brighter affair. It is here that we meet the inseparable Thingumy and Bob, carrying around a suitcase containing a secret ruby, to them "the most beautiful thing in the world", believed to represent Jansson and her lover at the time, theater director Vivica Bandler. (Homobaduality was illegal in Finland until 1971).

But it is not until the sixth book, Moominland Midwinter (1957), with which season one of the TV series ends, that we meet Too-Ticky cheery. With a talent for the weather and calming fears, she was inspired by Tuulikki Pietila (Tooti), the love of Jansson's life. The couple would be spending their summer on the island of the Finnish coast. Poor Moomintroll wakes up too early from the annual Moomin hibernation, but can not grouse it: "It's dead. All the world has died while I slept. This world belongs to somebody else whom I do not know. "For Jansson, it was her book about" what it is like when things get difficult ". "It's a real coming-of-age story," says Huckerby. "It is really about becoming independent of his family," Ostler continued. "She wrote it at the time when she was becoming more independent of her own family because she'd put Tuulikki."

The final two books turn over melancholy, reflecting Jansson 's darkening state of mind. in Moominpappa at Sea (1965), Moominpappa has a midlife crisis and decides to relocate the family to a remote lighthouse. Huckerby believes it is "probably the greatest book written about it", and, both writers agree, "her masterpiece". It was also one of them, with 15 or 16 times, they are still discovering new things about it. "The writing frustrates you," Huckerby says, "Because you keep going back, he keeps making the same mistakes, and you realize that it is a kind of cycle of depression and you can not get out of it. It's a profound work. "

"It's also very funny," Ostler adds. "It's like a terrible british holiday where it's all over the world: you're trying to get drunk." Few artists do rain like Jansson – she was influenced by Van Gogh, after all, Ostler points out, there's A wonderful drawing of the family picnicking on a tiny beach: "It is sheeting down, on this bleak, bleak island. There's something very blackly comic. "

The TV series takes us to the final novel Moominvalley in November (1970), the saddest of all, written just after the death of Jansson's mother. "It's a book about death, really," Huckerby says. "And about the loss of the Moomins. They are not even in it. It's a book in which everyone is waiting for them to return. "

It is this strangely comforting combination of disaster and everyday cosiness that makes the Moomins so enchanting and enduring. The Moomin books are survival stories: no problem is so great it can not be made better by a cup of coffee and a cuddle. As the apocalypse looms Moominmamma is busy arranging shells around her flowerbeds, while cakes are baking in the oven: "She will know what to do," says Moomintroll. So much literature is about escape from the family, a place of safety: "You must go on a long journey before you can really find your home," Moomintroll reflects.

This loving, could not be more timely: Moomins, with all their optimism, openness and hospitality, their deep connection with nature and anti-consumerist ethos (without ever being pompous – with the exception, perhaps, of Moominpappa), to a new audience, and hopefully readership. As Ostler says, "They go through everything – floods and earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, comets. It's happening, but they're kind of face to face with a smile. "

• Moominvalley is launched on Sky 1 and Sky Kids on April 19.