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Fritiof Nilsson Piraten, born Nils Fritiof Adam Nilsson was a Swedish author, from the south-most province Skåne, which plays an important role in many of his books.
Educated as a lawyer at Lund he left a successful practice in 1932 to write, and that same year published his debut, "Bombi Bitt och jag", a Scanian Tom Sawyer-like story of sorts. Bombi Bitt is what he is most remembered for, it was made into both a movie in 1936, and a TV-series 1968, the series starring Stellan Skarsgård of present Hollywood-fame in the lead role as Bombi Bitt, with Piraten himself as the narrator. Piraten went on to write two more books about Bombi Bitt, one in 1946 and one in 1974. Most of his books are collections of bucolic anecdotes about eccentric people in Skåne, such as his novel, Bock i örtagård, about an illiterate horse-dealer and squire who bullies his way into a church-wardenship to win a bet. A movie was released 1958 based on this novel. A later novel, Bokhandlaren som slutade bada is a deeply tragic story, dotted with occasional comic situations, about a too-sensitive man falling in love with a woman and marrying her before he realizes who she really is, and the disasters that follow. 1969 a movie came out based on this novel. Most of his books are considered to fit well in the tall tale category.
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