Just one more reason to wish you lived in the U.K. The independent publisher Self Made Hero will be releasing a Moomin-themed cookbook this July.



"They're traditional Finnish recipes – it's an introduction to Finnish cuisine," said editor Emma Hayley at independent publisher SelfMadeHero. "There's drinks, salads, desserts, breakfast at the end of a Nordic summer night – it's great fun, with dialogue and Moominisms interspersed throughout the recipes." Other recipes will include the Snufkin's picnic pot, the Lighthouse Keeper's fish pie and potato au gratin for hungry Moomins.

The cookbook has already been published in Finnish, Swedish and French, where it is doing well, Hayley said. Jansson's writings have recently undergone a revival in the UK, with her adult novels The Summer Book, The Winter Book, Fair Play and The True Deceiver all reissued in the last 10 years.

Jansson is beloved throughout Europe (and other places as well) for her Moomin series of books, comics and other printed matter, about an unflappable, gentle hippo-shaped family that frequently find themselves engaged in some rather bizarre adventures. Drawn and Quarterly has been publishing Jansson's Moomin comic strips in some rather handsome hardbacks, and the fifth volume is due to come out later this year.

But, hey, if have trouble trying to import the book, you can always just gaze longingly at this Moomin gingerbread house. (via)