Gösta Knutsson

Who was Gösta Knutsson?

Gösta Lars August Knutsson was a Swedish radio producer and writer of a popular series of children's books about the cat Pelle Svanslös.

Gösta Knutsson was born in a middle-class family in Stockholm and came to the University of Uppsala as a student, remaining in Uppsala for the rest of his life. After completing an M.A. degree, he was curator of the Stockholm Nation and later chairman of the Uppsala Student Union. He was also editor of the student union paper Ergo 1940-42. During his time as student union chairman, he was also employed as head of the Uppsala office of the Swedish National Radio and remained there from 1936 until 1969. As such he introduced the quiz show in Sweden, with the first one recruiting the two teams from two of the student nations in Uppsala.

Knutsson is most remembered for his series of children's books about Pelle Svanslös, "Peter No-Tail", a good-hearted and often naïve cat whose tail had been bitten off by a rat when he was a kitten. The books contain a number of other cats such as Pelle's darling Maja Gräddnos or his adversary, the bully Elaka Måns, who never forgets reminding Pelle of his lack of a tail, and Måns' two followers Bill and Bull, who tend to repeat everything Måns says in fragmentary and garbled form. The anthropomorphic cats mostly live in the area around the cathedral and the university in Uppsala, seen from a somewhat feline perspective.