Alfie Atkins

Alfie Atkins

Alfie Atkins
Author Gunilla Bergström
Original title Alfons Åberg
Illustrator Gunilla Bergström
Cover artist Gunilla Bergström
Country Sweden
Language Swedish
Genre children
Publisher Rabén & Sjögren
Published 1972-

Alfie Atkins (Swedish: Alfons Åberg) is a fictional character created by the author Gunilla Bergström from Sweden in 1972. Alfie Atkins appears in books and animated cartoons. Alfie Atkins is a pretty ordinary guy, who lives with his father. When he was younger he had an imaginary friend named Malcolm (Mållgan in Swedish; Moggie in English TV version), that only Alfie could see. Later, he gets real friends such as Milla and Victor (Viktor). He also has a cat named Puzzle (Pussel).

In the books Alfie experiences many ordinary everyday events that all kids can easily recognize. In his longing to grow up and be a big boy, Alfie often competes with his father on who can manage these events in the best way. Alfie's father is a nice and positive man; women, however, do not appear as frequently in the stories, although Alfie has both an aunt named Fifi (Fiffi) and a grandmother. Alfie and his father love each other very much and there is no mentioning of a wife or mother.

The first book about Alfie, Goodnight, Alfie Atkins (Godnatt, Alfons Åberg), came out in 1972. There are 24 books in the Alfie series, along with seven other Alfie books for smaller children. The books have been translated into 29 different languages. The books are illustrated by Gunilla Bergström.

Alfie is called Alfons Åberg in Swedish and Danish, Willi Wiberg in German, Albert Åberg in Norwegian, Einar Áskell in Icelandic, Mikko Mallikas in Finnish and Ifan Bifan in Welsh.

The company that publishes the books is called Rabén & Sjögren.

Books

Cartoon series

Starting in the late 1970s, a cartoon series was produced, containing adaptations of the books. The main director was Per Åhlin and the musical score was composed by Georg Riedel. The show was a co-production between Åhlin's company PennFilm, the Swedish Film Institute and the Nordic television channels SVT, NRK, DR and YLE. Between 1979 and 1982 13 episodes of approximately 10 minutes each was produced. In 1994, three additional shorts were produced.

Feature adaptation

In 2013, Norwegian director Torill Kove brought Alfie Atkins to cinemas with the feature presentation Hocus Pocus Alfie Atkins. It is based on the book of the same title with additions made for the sake of runtime[1]

External links

References