Joel Willans (born 11 May 1972 in

Sudbury, Suffolk Sudbury (, ) is a market town and civil parish in the south west of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour near the Essex border, north-east of London. It is the largest town in the Babergh local government district and part of the South Suf ...

in Great Britain) is a British

copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to incre ...

and author. He moved to

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

in 2002 with his Finnish girlfriend, now his wife.

Biography

Before moving to Finland, Willans spent his early adult life studying history at

University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic. The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along wi ...

in London, working in the advertising business and writing short stories. In Finland, Willans worked as a copywriter before founding an

ad agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

with his wife. The couple also have two children.

Work

Willans’ first book, ''Spellbound – Stories of Women's Magic over Men'', was published in England in 2013. The book's short stories describe men falling in love with women. The second book, ''101 Very Finnish Problems – The Foreigner's Guide to Surviving in Finland'', was published in 2017 by

Gummerus Gummerus Oy is a Finnish media group that was founded in Jyväskylä in 1872 by Karl Jacob Gummerus. In 1985, it moved its headquarters from Jyväskylä to Helsinki. In 2008, it had an annual turnover of EUR 26,9 million. Annually, ...

. The work is a collection of short,

causerie Causerie (from French, "talk, chat") is a literary style of short informal essays mostly unknown in the English-speaking world. A causerie is generally short, light and humorous and is often published as a newspaper column (although it is not defi ...

-style essays, which use a humorous tone to describe Finnish culture from an outside point of view. Willans based this second book on his Facebook page, Very Finnish Problems, which publishes image memes on Finland to a major audience. Peculiarities in Finnish culture, nature, geography etc. are humorously described as "problems". Across different social media, the Very Finnish Problems brand has more than 650,000 followers. Gummerus published a sequel, ''More Very Finnish Problems – An Even More Essential Guide To Surviving in Finland,'' in 2018, in which Willans explores his observations on Finnish culture with added depth, while adding illustrations from his social media accounts. In both his writing and interviews by media, Willans tends to discuss what he sees as a contrast between positive aspects of

Nordic Nordic most commonly refers to: * Nordic countries, the northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and their North Atlantic territories * Scandinavia, a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern ...

life, compared to the deep-rooted yet "shallow"

class system A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of Dominance hierarchy, hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the Bourgeoisie, capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for exam ...

of British society. In Great Britain, some of Willans’ short stories have been awarded the Yeovil Literary Prize and been read on

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Radio Somerset. Willans’ company also publishes a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

titled Very Finnish Problems, on the Ink Tank web publication.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willans, Joel 1972 births Living people British podcasters British expatriates in Finland British copywriters British writers Alumni of the University of Greenwich