The memoirs of Moominpappa

"One cold and windy autumn evening many years ago a newspaper parcel was found on the doorstep of the Home for Moomin Foundlings. In that parcel I lay, quite small and shivering with cold." So begins the remarkable Memoirs of Moominpappa, a book written to delight his dear son Moomintroll and friends. What follows is a story about storytelling itself. Moominpappa weavesone fabulous tale after another, writing at night to read aloud by day and featuring not only the fearless, adventurous author but also the fathers of Sniff and Snufkin - the rather muddled Muddler and the carefree Joxter. Add tot his mix the genius inventor Hodgkins and a grand finale in which Moominpappa rescues a shipwrecked Moominmamma from the waves and the fun becomes irresistible. The Memoirs of Moominpappa, was first published in the UK in 1950 under the title, The Exploits of Moominpapa. In the early 1960s Tove Jansson substantially revised this text, redrawing pictures and reinstating her preferred title.