Yes, that's absolutely true. I listened to that podcast about November, and thought then that I must revisit it. I think my response to At Sea won't change - it made me uncomfortable also for quite personal reasons. My dad was a bit like MP, quixotic, dreaming of adventure that he wasn't quite up to, running away from the 'real' world. My mum spent most of my life desperately homesick for England, so I could so empathize with MM drawing her garden on the walls of the lighthouse and disappearing into it. I wanted to be Little My or Snufkin but was - as an only child, with those two parents - more like Moomin in the winter and on the island: desperately lonely. I think I've become Snufkin in my old age, which is a pleasing achievement. Thinking about all this makes me realize how brilliantly Jansson portrays characters and human nature.