Kõige selle keskel - Tiit Kändler

Tiit Kändler has written the story of his childhood in a humorous and engaging way. The work reflects real life in Kalamaja in the 1950s, as well as in Turba, Lilleküla, and today's Science School.

“They had three rooms on the second floor of house number ten on Jahu Street. They had wooden floors and the two windows of the first room looked down onto Jahu Street, while the window of the mother-father’s bedroom and the window of the room where Tiidu’s bed and play corner and mother’s dresser were looked out onto the large courtyard of the house. It was good to see from there who was playing in the courtyard, but it was also a bit scary, because from there you could see the roof of the Patarei prison, which stretched and towered over Suur-Patarei Street, which was scary: suddenly the prisoners would escape and come, break into the room and take the biggest Estonian-era knife for cutting meat from the kitchen drawer (that was what my mother said) and then… There was no sea to be seen, but the Patarei prison, it was always in sight. It was around the time when the French were fighting in Vietnam, the writer Bernard Shaw died and the artist Henri Matisse won a prize in Venice.”

Tiit Kändler is an author who has worked as a researcher for 16 years and defended his doctoral thesis under the supervision of Endel Lippmaa. He has written humor and satire, columns and essays, book reviews, and regular stories about science in all areas of culture and in various publications.

Kändler has published 17 books, cartoons, a TV series and a documentary, and translated about the same number of books. He has received several science popularizer awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, the European Science Writer's Award in 2012, and the Order of the White Star, 5th Class in 2001.


Keywords:
People's Book
Kändler, Tiit, 1948-
scientists
journalists
childhood
Estonia
1950s
memories