India, July 25 -- In 1939, Tove Jansson, already a published author, illustrator and cartoonist at 25, found herself facing up to the reality of World War 2. "It felt completely pointless to try to create pictures... I suddenly felt an urge to write down something that was to begin with 'Once upon a time'... What followed had to be a fairytale. but I. (avoided) princes, princesses and small children and chose instead my angry signature character. and called him the Moomintroll," she wrote, in the introduction to the first in the series, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945).

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What followed was a series of six novels, all featuring the adventures of the Moomins, which were small, soft, hippopotamus-like trolls. Key characters were the ...