Sven Nordqvist started out as an architect and worked as an advertising artist for a while. It was in 1983, when he won a competition of best picture book at OPAL, that he started as an illustrator and author. His competition contribution was the book Agaton Öman och alfabetet, which has become a huge success in Sweden and is still popular 27 years later. As the story is about the alphabet it is very hard to translate it into other languages than the Nordic ones. A year later Sven Nordqvist wrote and illustrated his first book about an old man, Pettson, and his cat Findus, and this reknowned independent series of 8 books has been translated into around 40 languages.
