The directory «Plots»

Nordqvist Sven
(b.1946)
«Pettson och Findus»

Sven Nordqvist is a Swedish writer and illustrator of children's books. He is best known for his series Pettson and Findus, about an old farmer, Pettson, and his talented cat, Findus.

Nordqvist was born in Helsingborg and grew up in Halmstad, Sweden. He originally wanted to be an illustrator but was rejected by several art schools. Instead he studied architecture at Lund Institute of Technology, and worked for a time there as a lecturer in architecture. At the same time he continued to look for work as an illustrator working on advertisements, posters and picture books. In 1983 he won first prize in a children's book competition and since then has worked exclusively as an author and illustrator of children's books.

He is married and has two adult sons.

During his career, he has been given awards in both Sweden and Germany. His Pettson and Findus books are especially popular in Germany, where the characters are known as Pettersson and Findus. In Danish they are called Peddersen and Findus. In Finnish they are called Pesonen and Viiru. And in English, Festus and Mercury, though English translations of the books exist with the original names kept. Pettson and Findus was adapted for television in 1999.

In 2007 he won the literary award Augustpriset in the children's books category, for his book Var är min syster? ("Where is my sister?"). In 1992 he won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis.

Pettson and Findus (in Swedish: Pettson och Findus) is a series of children’s books written and illustrated by Swedish author Sven Nordqvist. The books feature an old farmer (Pettson) and his cat (Findus) who live in a small ramshackle farmhouse in the countryside. The first of the Pettson och Findus book to be published was Pannkakstårtan in 1985 (first published in English in 2007 as Pancake Pie).

To date, nine story books have been published in Swedish, plus a puzzle book, song book and cook book. The books have worldwide book sales of over 6 million and have been translated into 44 languages. There are two alternative English translations of the characters' names: in the books published in the UK by Hawthorn Press, as well as those published in English by Swedish publisher Opal, they have the original names, Pettson and Findus, while in the books published in the USA by Carolrhoda Books they are called Festus and Mercury.

In addition to the books, there are also three Pettson and Findus 75-minute long animated films, an animated TV series of 26 25-minute parts, computer games and board games. In December 1993, the Swedish TV company SVT broadcast one of the Pettson and Findus stories, Tomtemaskinen (The mechanical santa), as its annual Christmas “Advent calendar”, with one 15-minute part shown each day up until Christmas Eve. In 2000 the world of Pettson and Findus was recreated full scale at the Junibacken Children’s Museum in Stockholm. Pettson is an old farmer who lives in a ramshackle red-ochre-painted wooden farmhouse in the Swedish countryside. He is presumably a widower, as in Pettson Goes Camping he tells of a planned camping trip with his wife in his youth, but no children are mentioned. His neighbours regard him as a bit odd. However, he does have the company of a cat, Findus. Findus is dressed in a green-striped costume and wears a cap. Pettson and Findus can converse with each other, and the cat can stand up on his two hind legs like a human - Findus thus appears and behaves as if he were a small child. However, Findus, unlike Pettson, is aware of other "small creatures" living in the house, who play havoc with Pettson's belongings. Each of the books takes off from simple events, such as gardening, going fishing, preparing for Christmas, and so on. It emerges only in the most recent of the books, When Findus was little and disappeared, that the cat had been given to Pettson as a kitten, and that he had arrived in a cardboard box with the text "Findus peas" on the side - hence the inspiration for the choice of a name.

Switzerland, 2011, Pettson and Findus

Switzerland, 2011.03.03, Bern. Pettson and Findus

Switzerland, 2011, Pettson and Findus