Writers Finland Forest tour

As part of our Book Campaign, these authors acted as ambassadors for the protection of the worlds' last ancient forests and have pledged to print their next books on 'ancient forest friendly' paper.

"I cannot keep wondering how much pulp of paper has my book swallowed, how many trees have been logged, how much destruction or natural habitat has my modest endeavour caused," says Javier Moro. "It is our duty as writers to protect our books from being accomplices in nature's holocaust."

The authors toured some of Finland's most threatened ancient forests in northern Lapland, situated about 300 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. They visited important ancient forests that are some of the last untouched forests and crucial to the traditional livelihoods of the indigenous Sámi reindeer herders.  They also witnessed ancient forests areas that have recently been logged by the Finnish State logging company, Metsähallitus. The authors offered their support to the demands of Sámi reindeer herders and environmental groups that these unique areas be set aside from logging and not be pulped to make paper products.

This experience also reaffirmed the authors' commitments to get their next books on ancient forest friendly paper. In fact, Niccolo Ammaniti was so inspired while spending time in these fragile ancient forests he called his publisher (while still in the forest!) and convinced him to print his next book on recycled paper. 

Read about the authors and some stories that they were inspired to write after their visit to the Ancient Forests of Finland.


Lydia Rood - Netherlands

Lydia Rood was born in Velp, the Netherlands in 1957. She is a trained journalist with several years of newspaper experience (Volkskrant) and is currently writing freelance for magazines, radio and television, however, her main profession is writing novels.

Her debut was in 1982, a children's book called 'Een geheim pad naar gisteren' (A Secret Path To Yesterday). She has received awards for her children's books. Apart from children's books, she writes novels, thrillers and (erotic) short stories. Important themes in her books are freedom, friendship and adventure.

Lydia has always been very socially engaged and an activist against injustice, for example she took part in the demonstration in Tahiti against French nuclear testing in Mururoa in 1995.  Lydia lives in Marken, the Netherlands, with her daughter.


Javier Moro - Spain

Read "The Writer's Role" by Javier Moro

Javier Moro was born in Madrid in 1955.  He is a writer, journalist, cinema producer and screenwriter. He is following the path defined by his uncle, Dominique Lapierre (author of 'City of Joy' and the famous 'Freedom at Midnight').  Javier has discovered different facets of Indian ethos and culture, while dwelling on India-relevant themes.  His most recent book is 'Indian Passion', a historic novel set in India at the end of the British Raj, based on a true story. 

His other books all have a strong social or environmental angle and include: the story of Brazilian leader Chico Mendes, 'Freedom at Midnight', the story of a quadriplegic who conquered his disability 'El pie de jaipur', the true story of 2 Tibetan nuns who fled Lhasa in search for freedom in India, 'The mountains of the Buddha' and the story of the world's worst industrial disaster 'Five past midnight in Bhopal'.  To write this book he lived in Bhopal for six months.  He combed the city, interviewing laborers and others associated with the Union Carbide.  He conducted 256 interviews all over the world, finding the people who could provide him a wider perspective of events. 

Moro is also a freelancer journalist with published articles in all major Spanish newspapers and magazines (El País or El Mundo).  In addition, Moro has co-produced and wrote screenplays for the movies 'Valentina' and 'Cronica del alba' and has been involved in cinema and TV projects in the United States in collaboration with directors like Ridley Scott.

Ken Finn - UK

Read "Pulp Friction" by Ken Finn

Ken Finn grew up in 60's suburban Walton-on-Thames. He left school at 15 with no qualifications and answered the call of the 'cool', joining London's new wave of working class heroes of fashion. As a successful hairdresser his material ambitions, sports cars and a country cottage came quickly but their shine was short lived. Instead he found the wonder of the natural world in his rural surroundings. He is deeply passionate about what's happening to our world, its wildlife and wild places.

Ken has recently published his first book, 'My Journey with a remarkable tree' which documents his search for the fabled Spirit Trees of Cambodia. It is a journey that lays bare what's happening to the forests, wildlife and people of Cambodia and how that affects us.

Ken witnesses the destruction of spirit trees and forest vital for a way of life for indigenous people, by illegal loggers. He follows a tree's path from the forest, through the wood mill and processing plant and onto the shop floor as garden furniture for our homes. Along the way he witnesses first hand the systematic and thoughtless destruction of ancient forests for immediate economic gain, and the operations of a corrupt regime intent on turning diversity into monoculture, and forest into chipboard for quick profit.

Ken's book is printed on a 30 percent Forest Stewardship Council certified paper.


Niccolò Ammaniti - Italy

Read Niccolò's piece inspired by the Finnish forests.

Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome in 1966.  He studied biology at university but left before completing the degree.  To make a bit of cash he bred fish. University and fish breeding were the main themes of his debut in 1994 with the novel 'Branchie' (Editrice Ediesse, subsequently Einaudi, 1997).  In 1995 he published the essay 'Nel nome del figlio', written together with his father Massimo.  Further success came a year later with the publication of 'Fango' (Mondadori).  A collection of stories of varying styles (noir, horror, comedy) about the city of Rome.  A film, starring Monica Bellucci and entitled 'L'ultimo capodanno dell'umanità' was made based on the first story.  His short stories have appeared in the anthologies 'Gioventù cannibale' (Einaudi, 1966) and 'Tutti i denti del mostro sono perfetti' (Mondadori, 1997).  The great rural novel "Ti prendo e ti porto via" (Mondadori) is from 1999.  In 2001 he wrote a script for an American production 'Gone Bad'-a sentimental splatter comedy in digital animation, about a group of zombies in a Nevada Village.

In 2001 Einaudi published 'I'm Not Scared' (Io Non Ho Paura).  This book has been Ammaniti's biggest success so far. 'I'm Not Scared' has been on the best-seller list in Italy since its release in April 2001 and has won many literary awards.  In fact, at thirty-four, Niccolò Ammaniti is the youngest-ever author to win the prestigious Viareggio-Rèpaci prize.

A film based on the novel 'I'm Not Scared' has been made, directed by Gabriele Salvatores, the Academy-award winning director of Mediterraneo.  It premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2003, and is already a smash hit in Italy.  His books have been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Greek and Russian.


Robin Valtiala - Finland

Robin Valtiala was born in 1967 in Kauniainen, Finland.  Robin has published several poetry and short prose in Finnish and Swedish including 'Bakfönster' (Boklaget 1991) and 'Fingerfärg' (Schildts 1997).  Söderströms published his first novel 'Långa barn ska spela gamla' about the energetic youth and the mechanisms in society working to suppress these expressions in 2003.  Valtiala has also written travel books about Latin America and his next book on Mexico will be published in 2006. 

"All my life I have liked and needed nature for my inspiration. For me, it's hard to understand the use of the word "democracy" nowadays. Business people are said to represent liberty just because they are good at making money and at the same time they act in ways that steer far from public opinion, supported by politicians, and often cooperate with dictators. A person who thinks the right to make money should be restricted, if it can solve environmental and social problems, this person is called a 'communist'. A person who protests is easily called 'terrorist'. When I hear this last argument, I think to myself that without any illegal protest my country would among other things still be ruled by an absolute monarch.
  
How ridiculous the power of the so named experts can be, I realized this notion a couple of years ago, when I took part in a public discussion about the forest where I live in Espoo. The city of Espoo had hired a consultant who claimed that it's necessary to cut down trees in order to protect biodiversity. A biologist in the audience pointed out it's quite the opposite, which befell on deaf ears.

I enjoy the absolute freedom I have in my literary world. The day there's nothing around you that is not artificially made, I wonder what literature will be like." 


Karel Verleyen - Flemish Belgium

Karel Verleyen (1938) is very well educated; after achieving his teacher's degree he studied law and then went on to pursue several additional post-academic degrees. This set the stage for Karel leading a very diverse and colourful professional life in which education, journalism and writing is the most important components. For 12 years Karel was acting chief editor of TOP, a magazine for teenagers. He went on to be the chief editor for the newspaper Het Volk and chief editor of UIT-Magazine (tourism magazine) en Wintersport Magazine.

Since 1996 Karel has dedicated his time completely to writing books. He started his career writing historical adventurous stories but has expanded his repertoire to include stories influenced by his own travel-experiences and publications addressing environment problems, misuse of modern technology and so forth. He also actively translates books from French, German, English, Italian and Spanish into Dutch.  Karel Verleyen has received many acclaims for his work in Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries as many of his books have been translated into different languages.

Verleyen's strength as a writer is that he is able to write about very complex matters such as racism, globalisation and exploitation to a very young audience.  He loves to communicate to children and teenagers about his books and listens to their opinion. Daily he receives a lot of e-mails, letters and even phone calls from his readers and engages in discussions with them about the themes in his work.  He is startled when he is called a famous and successful Flemish writer. Because only one thing matters to him: that children and teenagers love to read and are inspired by his stories, books and poems.


Aurélie Filipetti - France

Read "All this for paper pulp" inspired by the Finnish forests

Aurélie Filippetti was born in 1973 in Lorraine in east of France and is of Italian decent.  Her first novel 'Les derniers jours de la classe Ouvrière' (The Lasts Days of the Labour Class) published by Stock in 2003 and has been subsequently translated in several languages.  In 2003, Aurélie wrote the script for the theater production 'Fragments d'humanité'. Her second novel is due to be launched at the end of 2005.

Aurélie is also a delegate of the French Green party for the Paris municipality and acted as the technical adviser for the Environmental Minister, Yves Cochet, from 2001 to 2002.