Podcasts & The Joy of Books

Whilst browsing through the iTunes store, I thought I’d search ‘Tove Jansson’ in and see what results I’d get. You can get a lot of the Moomin music, most of the books and free podcasts. Seeing as I have all the books and some music, I decided to have a listen to the podcasts.

The first one I listened to was from an English lecturer called Kate Macdonald, which I think was released on September 22nd 2011. She makes podcasts called ‘Why I Really Like This Book’ and this one was called Tove Jansson and the Moomins. I thought it was fascinating to listen to someone describe all the Moomin characters in such a perfect way,  so I would definitely recommend listening to it. It’s just less than 10 minutes and is completely free! Her website is http://www.reallylikethisbook.com/ - the podcast can be downloaded there or on iTunes.

The next podcast I listened to was one recorded at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2010. It is a kind of question and answer session with Sophia Jansson, who currently owns all things Moomin. She is Tove Jansson’s niece, and has a great insight into the Moomins. It’s just over 50 minutes long and is also free. She talks about different characters and where the Moomins are thought to have come from, which a lot of people may not know.

She hosted a similar talk in Manchester in October 2010 which I managed to get to, being up the road from me - oohhhh I got a front row seat and a lovely little chat with her too, but that story shall be saved for another time.

Finally, I came across an amazing video called The Joy of Books which features Moomins. It’s only for a few seconds at 1:08, but it really is the most fascinating video I’ve seen in a long while:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKVcQnyEIT8