Fair Play Read online

  “The best thing is probably to turn it down,” Jonna repeated.

  Mari said, “Don’t do that. I think it’ll be all right.”

  “You do? You really think so?”

  “Yes, I do. I’m going to need a long time for these illustrations. They have to be good.”

  “But I mean,” said Jonna, quite confused, “illustrations…”

  “Exactly. They have to be good, and that takes time. You may not realize how important they are for me.”

  “Of course I do!” Jonna burst out, and she launched into a long, earnest discussion of the importance of illustration, the painstaking labour, the concentration, the need to be undisturbed if you’re going to do your best work.

  Mari was hardly listening. A daring thought was taking shape in her mind. She began to anticipate a solitude of her own, peaceful and full of possibility. She felt something close to exhilaration, of a kind that people can permit themselves when they are blessed with love.

  Other Tove Jansson titles

  published as eBooks by Sort Of Books

  The Summer Book

  A Winter Book

  Travelling Light

  The True Deceiver

  Copyright

  Photo credits

  Inside front cover: Tove Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä © Per Olov Jansson

  Inside back cover: Seascape © Margareta Strömstedt; Tove Jansson potting © Beata Bergström; other four photos of Tove Jansson © Per Olov Jansson; flowers on Klovharu © Pentti Eistola.

  p.1 (cat) © Tuulikki Pietilä

  p.17 (Tove Jansson in Italy, 1979) © Pentti Eistola

  p.128 (shore) © Tuulikki Pietilä

  Fair Play (Rent spel) © Tove Jansson 1989

  English translation © Thomas Teal and Sort Of Books 2007

  Introduction © Ali Smith 2007

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

  This English translatinon first published in 2007 by

  Sort Of Books, PO Box 18678, London NW3 2FL.

  Typeset in Goudy and GillSans to a design by Henry Iles.

  Printed in Italy by Legoprint.

  128pp

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  Print ISBN 978–0–95489–953–0

  ePub ISBN 978–1–908745–20–0

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Epigraph

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction by Ali Smith

  Changing Pictures

  Videomania

  The Hunter

  Catfishing

  One Time in June

  Fog

  Killing George

  Travels with a Konica

  B-Western

  In the Great City of Phoenix

  Wladyslaw

  Fireworks

  Cemeteries

  Jonna’s Pupil

  Viktoria

  Stars

  The Letter

  Copyright