Sven Otto Rickard Nordqvist (born 30 April 1946) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

writer and illustrator of

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

s, best known for his series

Pettson and Findus ''Pettson and 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 in arou ...

, about the old farmer Pettson and his talented cat Findus. He is also active as a comic artist.

Background

Nordqvist was born in

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...

and grew up in

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...

, Sweden. He originally wanted to be an illustrator but was rejected by several art schools. Instead he studied architecture at

Lund Institute of Technology The Faculty of Engineering is one of the eight faculties at Lund University in Lund, Sweden, commonly called LTH (after its Swedish name ''Lunds Tekniska Högskola''). In 2022 LTH has about 1,500 employees and nearly 10,000 students, of which ...

, 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 Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. 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 Norwegian they are called ''Pettersen'' 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 The August Prize () is an annual Swedish literary prize awarded each year since 1989 by the Swedish Publishers' Association. The prize is awarded to the best Swedish book of the year, in three categories. The Swedish Publishers' Association also ...

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

Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis The (German Youth Literature Award) is an annual award established in 1956 by the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to recognise outstanding works of children's and young adult literature. It is Germany's only ...

References

External links

Lambiek Comiclopedia article.
1946 births Living people People from Helsingborg Writers from Skåne County Swedish-language writers Swedish children's writers Swedish children's book illustrators Writers who illustrated their own writing Swedish comics artists August Prize winners Recipients of the Astrid Lindgren Prize 20th-century Swedish illustrators 21st-century Swedish illustrators Swedish poster artists Swedish advertising artists and illustrators {{Sweden-writer-stub