Who are the Swedes? What are their secrets? This book walks you through 12 months of little known facts and fun anecdotes about the land of the Midnight Sun – where you can read a newspaper outdoors in the middle of the night and people dine on rotten fish!
The Year in Sweden
Kim Loughran has enjoyed a varied career in media in Sweden. His first job after accidentally immigrating in 1966 was however in a non-media pigsty. Years in broadcasting — first at the foreign service of the Swedish Radio Company, then Radio Stockholm — were followed by nine years as editor of Tomorrow, a pioneering environmental business magazine. Earlier years were spent wandering from parental home in Singapore (boarding school in homeland Australia) to Switzerland then England, just in time for the Swinging Sixties. Now a Swedish citizen and happy as a pig in mud.
Sweden’s speedy transformation from agrarian poverty to wealth and bubbling creativity has produced a people trapped happily between tradition and progress. Add a growing immigrant population and the mix becomes exotic and amusing. Kim Loughran sketches a year — any year — in an odd country where four seasons regularly occur in the same month. With delightful images from all over Sweden, this book will leave you with an inviting impression of one of Europe’s most stunningly beautiful countries.
Johan Tell
K IM LOUG H RA N
Bokförlaget Max Ström Skeppsholmen 111 49 Stockholm www.maxstrom.se
ISBN 978-91-7126-165-6
BO K FÖ R LAG ET MAX ST RÖM
9 789171 261656
KI M LO UGH RAN B O KFÖRLAGET MAX BOOKS ST RÖM BONNIER
The Year in Sweden
© Bokförlaget Max Ström 2009 © Photo: Each respective photographer Text: Kim Loughran Editor: Kevin Billinghurst Design: Patric Leo Layout: Petra Ahston Inkapööl Repro and printing: Fälth & Hässler, Värnamo 2009 www.maxstrom.se ISBN: 978-91-7126-165-6
The Year in Sweden
K im Lo ug h r a n Bo k fรถ r l ag et Max St r รถm
Picture Sources Jacket, front Hans Strand/ Briljans
Torbjörn Lilja/ Naturfotograferna 26–27
Jacket, back Jeppe Wikström
Ulf Palm/Scanpix 34–35
Lars Bygdemark 6, 44, 50, 52–53, 76, 78–79, 92–93
Magnus Rietz/Johnér 59, 74–75
Göran Ekström 33, 105
Anders Ryman 54
Jonas Forsberg/ Naturfotograferna 16–17
Håkan Sandbring/Sydpol 73, 87
Eddie Granlund/Naturbild 112
Jan Schützer/ Naturfotograferna 116
Claes Grundsten 20–21, 36, 46–47, 82, 88–89, 117, 126
Hans Strand 39, 40, 63, 64–65, 66–67, 102, 107, 130–131
Tore Hagman 12, 23, 24, 28, 32, 49, 68, 70–71, 94, 97, 98–99, 100, 108a, 110–111
Erik G Svensson 108b, 109
Malcolm Hanes 56–57
Jeppe Wikström 4, 8–9, 11, 18, 31, 41, 42–43, 60–61, 62, 77, 80–81, 90, 91, 115, 118–119, 120, 123, 128, 129, 132
Sven Halling/Naturbild 15, 84–85 Ben Nilsson/ Big Ben Productions 25
Roger Turesson 124–125