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
("Bombi Bitt and me"), a Scandinavian Tom Sawyer-like story. Bombi
Bitt is what he is most remembered for; it was made into both a movie in 1936,
and a TV-series in 1968.
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 anecdotes
about eccentric people in Skåne, such as his novel, Bock i örtagård ("Buck
in herbal garden", 1933), about an illiterate horse-dealer and squire who
bullies his way into a church-wardenship to win a bet.
A later novel, Bokhandlaren som slutade bada ("The
book-dealer who ceased bathing", 1937) 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.
Nilsson was deliberately non-literary, getting along with
sailors, farmers and businessmen, and probably got his nickname for that reason.
His humour is based more in understatement than in hyperbole, although the stories
may be wild enough.
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