Elly Jannes

Elly Jannes (November 15, 1907 – February 11, 2006) was a Swedish writer and journalist.

Biography Jannes was born in Örebro in November 1907. She was the daughter of Janne Petterson and his wife Anna Landström. She grew up in Brevens bruk in Kilsmo. Her upbringing at the mill affected her life and writing. Her perspective was always that of the working girl, aware of her origins and her upbringing, in the poor Sweden of the early 20th century.

Elly Jannes was the youngest of five siblings. Her older sisters supported her to learn to read. Since Jannes was a small child, she dreamed of becoming a journalist and writer. She later won a short story contest in Idun and was employed by the magazine. In 1936 she left Idun, was hired as a reporter for the magazine Vi and worked for it until she retired.

Elly Jannes was married to a doctor, Svante Höjeberg (born in 1917, died in 1966), and had a daughter, Elle-Kari Höjeberg, born in 1953, who was working as a programme manager at Sweden Radio P2 (2006). Elle-Kari was named after the protagonist of the photographic novel Elle Kari. The photographic novel was written by Jannes and included photographs by Anna Riwkin-Brick. It was the first book in the series Children's Everywhere and has been translated into eighteen different languages. The first issue in Germany alone sold over 25,000 copies. Years later, the Israeli director Dvorit Shargal made a documentary (Where Is Elle Kari and What Happened to Noriko-san?) where she tried to find Elle Kari, the protagonist from the book. She talked with Jannes's daughter about the making of the book.