Astrid och jag (Swedish)

"At Christmas time in 2001, I sat like so many times before at Astrid Lindgren's round dining room table at Dalagatan 46 and drank coffee and grazed the day's mail harvest. I said to her:- Think, now I have turned 65, now I have become a national pensioner.- Well, you're not going to retire from me, are you?- No no, I said, it will only be when death separates us!- Yes you, said Astrid, and what do you think I should do then? Am I going to run around here howling with sadness?Astrid was then 94 years old, but she still had a sting in the line. Just over a month later, she was gone.Kerstin Kvint was only 16 years old when she stepped through the door of Rabén & Sjögren at Tegnergatan 28 in Stockholm in 1952. She started as an "office girl" but soon advanced to chief secretary and eventually it was she who took care of the publisher's foreign sales, not least she sold Astrid Lindgren's books with great success. And when Astrid in her older days couldn't handle all the correspondence herself, it was Kerstin who stepped in as her personal secretary.With many stories, private photos and quotes from Astrid, their long working life together is told here; travels, meetings with authors and publishing friends. Astrid Lindgren's wit and skill can be recognized in the many anecdotes, for example when, at the age of 85, she makes a hit with the Spanish publishing community in Barcelona when she proudly delivers an old catchphrase: I'm one of the nuts in Barcelona, ​​I plinka de plonk in Casa de bionk... Before the night was over everyone knew it by heart. She is undoubtedly the person who meant the most to me during my long professional life. A wonderful fellow human being unparalleled, a saving angel for me and a rock for many! Kerstin Kvint"