Joel Willans (born 11 May 1972 in

Sudbury, Suffolk Sudbury (, ) is a market town in the south west of Suffolk, England, on the River Stour near the Essex border, north-east of London. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 13,063. It is the largest town in the Babergh local government ...

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. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or ...

and author. He moved to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

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 with it ...

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 Kaarle Jaakko 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 defin ...

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

class system A social class is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle and lower classes. Membership in a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, incom ...

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

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Radio Somerset. Willans’ company also publishes a

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willans, Joel British podcasters British expatriates in Finland British copywriters British writers Living people 1972 births