Book Club: Comet in Moominland turns 80
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 30 October 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
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Summary
Nat Jansz joins Sam Leith to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Moomin novels. The first of these, Comet in Moominland, was revised by author Tove Jansson a decade after the original publication date. To celebrate the anniversary Sort of Books, co-run by Jansz, is publishing this revised edition for the first time in English.
Jansz discusses why she finds the books so compelling, the influence of the war on author Jansson and why she feels Jansson’s ‘quest for the truth’ was written in a way that was easy for children to understand. For Jansz, the Moomin novels had a mix of light and dark which broke the mould of previous children’s literature which was often prefaced with something traumatic. Plus – are there glimpses of the secret loves of the author hidden within the books?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:45.3 | Hello and welcome to the Spectator's Book Club podcast. |
| 0:47.7 | I'm Sam Leith, the literary edge of The Spectator. |
| 0:56.7 | At this week, we're going to be talking about Terva Janssen and her extraordinary Moomin stories. It is the 80th anniversary of the publication of Comet in Moomineland and the first full book in the series. And I'm joined |
| 1:03.1 | by the publisher of Sort of Books, Nat Yantz, who has made a heroic attempt to republish |
| 1:10.2 | much of Jansen's work, the best known Moomin's as well as the others. |
| 1:14.6 | And this year she's publishing not only anniversary edition of Comit in Moominand, |
| 1:20.2 | but a first English translation of the revised version of Comit in Moominand. |
| 1:25.5 | So the Moomin fan can now read them side by side. |
| 1:28.8 | Nat, welcome. Hello. Hello, Sam. Now, before we get into the weeds of the revision history, |
| 1:37.9 | there's no weeds, no weeds. Commented Moominand, Nan. Can you sketch sketch for me a bit for listeners, |
| 1:44.6 | you know, so many of our listeners will know the Moomin, |
| 1:46.9 | some of them will know them well, |
| 1:48.2 | many of them will have had, you know, |
| 1:49.4 | Moomin' gloves. |
| 1:50.7 | What was it particularly about this series of adventures |
| 1:55.7 | that has so captured our imaginations, do you think? |
... |
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