Fair Play

What mattered most to Tove Jansson, she explained in her eighties, was work and love, a sentiment she echoes in this tender and original novel. Translated for the first time into English, Fair Play portrays a love between two older women, a writer and artist, as they work side-by-side in their Helsinki studios, travel together and share summers on a remote island. In the generosity and respect they show each other and the many small shifts they make to accommodate each other’s creativity we are shown a relationship both heartening and truly progressive. “so what can happen when Tove Jansson turns her attention to her own favourite subjects, love and work, in the form of this novel about two women, lifelong partners and friends? Expect something philosophically calm – and discreetly radical. At first sight it looks autobiographical. Like everything Jansson wrote, it’s much more than it seems . . .Fair Play is very fine art . ” (Ali Smith from the introduction to Fair Play) Praise for A Winter Book‘Another charming, treasurable book by the author of the Mooomin stories…simple and light in style, yet somehow profound.’ Sunday Telegraph ‘The Winter Book is a magical read and will become a faithful friend’ The Scotsman‘We should be grateful that Jansson’s work is back in print.’ The Observer ‘Quietly beautiful and elegantly precise’ Daily Mail