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. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

s, best known for his series

Pettson and Findus Pettson and Findus ( sv, Pettson och 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 c ...

, 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 city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and ninth-largest in Sweden, with a population of 113,816 (2020). Helsingborg is the cent ...

and grew up in

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Socia ...

, 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''). LTH has (2022) about 1,500 employees and nearly 10,000 students, of which abo ...

, 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 is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. 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 ( sv, Augustpriset) 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. Prize In the years 1989- ...

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 Scania 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 {{Sweden-writer-stub