A01=Astrid Lindgren
Author_Astrid Lindgren
Category=DNC
Category=DND
children's author
children's classic
diaries
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
literary diary
literary memoir
neutral country
Pippi Longstocking
Second World War
Sweden
war diary
World War II
Product details
- ISBN 9781805332008
- Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 24 Sep 2026
- Publisher: Pushkin Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Before she became internationally known for her children's books, Astrid Lindgren was an aspiring author living in Stockholm with her family at the outbreak of the Second World War. These diaries, until recently stored in a wicker laundry basket in her Dalagatan home, offer a civilian, a mother, and an aspiring writer's unique account of a world devastated by conflict.
In these diaries Lindgren emerges as a morally courageous critic of violence and war, as well as a deeply sensitive and astute observer of world affairs. She provides insights into the Soviet invasion of Finland and the ambiguities of Swedish neutrality, and asks questions about the nature of evil, and our capacity, as individuals, to stand against such malevolent forces.
Alongside political events, Lindgren includes delightful vignettes of domestic life: shortages of butter, blackouts, dinner menus and children's birthdays, and moving descriptions of her marriage. And these diaries also reveal her emergence as a writer: the bedtime stories she invented for her daughter during this terrible period eventually became Pippi Longstocking, one of the most famous and beloved children's books of the twentieth century.
Posthumously published in Sweden to great acclaim, and now available in English, illustrated with family photographs, Lindgren's diaries provide a personal and vivid chronicle of Europe at war.
Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) is the third most translated writer for children (after Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm), and her books have sold more than 160 million copies worldwide. She became famous in her country almost overnight, with the publication of the first Pippi Longstocking books in 1945, and was awarded numerous honours, including the Hans Christian Andersen medal and the Gold Medal of the Swedish Academy in 1971.
