Selma Lagerlöf

Trångsund means the narrow strait, and the name fits: a slim lane between old houses and the walls of Storkyrkan, Stockholm's cathedral. Stand where the lane opens towards the church and imagine a statue of Selma Lagerlöf here. None exists; this is an example placement for this tour.

In 1909 Lagerlöf became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Swedish Academy, which meets in the Stock Exchange building a few steps from here, awarded it "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings".

She knew this city as a student. In 1881 she left Mårbacka, her family's estate in Värmland, to train as a teacher in Stockholm, and later taught at a girls' school in Landskrona. That background explains her best known book. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils was written as a reader for Swedish schoolchildren, a way to teach them the geography of their own country. Its hero is a boy shrunk to the size of a thumb who travels the length of Sweden on the back of a goose.

A schoolbook became one of the best loved children's books in any language. Look up at the cathedral tower and picture Nils, seeing all of Sweden from above.