Anna-Clara Tidholm

anna-Clara tidholm’s previous books
oFor the last thirty-five years Anna-
Clara Tidholm has been drawing
for children in a naivistic style not
far removed from children’s own
way of drawing and with a depth
and feeling that are also closely
related to child-hood. Her pictures
have become increasingly poetic
with the years. Her midnight blue
skies full of stars communicate a
longing for eternity. The bright,
happy drawings from the beginning
of time in “Kasper’s alla dagar” (All
Caspar’s Days,1994) fill the beholder
with the joy of life.
The subjects that she portrays
range from creation to death and,
in between, such varied matters as
space trips, everyday life at nursery
school, love, the history of the universe,
getting a sister or brother...
She has retold and reillustrated
fables and fairy-tales and she has
brought new life to books for the
very young with a series of simple,
very colourful and playful books
for infants. The first, called “Knacka
på!” (“Knock, Knock, Knock!”), was
published in 1992. Regardless of
subject and of the intended age of
the readers, Anna-Clara Tidholm is
always on the side of the child.
Anna-Clara was born in Stock-
holm in 1946. After matriculation
she studied literature at university
and worked as a journalist and
author before turning to drawing.
Her first illustrated books were, on
the one hand, politically critical in
a manner typical of the period and,
on the other hand, renarrations
of fairy-tales such as “Jätten och
ekorren” (The Giant and the Squirrel),
“Sagan om osten” (Tale of the
Cheese), “Korven” (The Sausage),
“Pojken och hans ulliga får” (The
Boy and his Woolly Sheep).
In 1970 Anna-Clara moved with
her family from Stockholm to Hälsingland
in northern Sweden where
they still live.
Books in collaboration with
Thomas Tidholm
In 1983 “Åkeboken” (Åke’s Book),
which Anna-Clara had produced
in collaboration with her husband,
the poet and musician Thomas
Tidholm, was published. It represents
something new in her creative
work.
The text of “Åkeboken” is simple
and childlike. What happens in the
story is seemingly unthreatening
and common-place but there is an
un-easiness, an uncanny feeling
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