Kaari Utrio

Kaari Marjatta Utrio (born 28 July 1942, official surname Utrio-Linnilä) is a Finnish writer. She has written dozens of historical novels and many non-fiction books on historical topics. She is a historian, holding the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Helsinki, and has returned from the position of Professor in service of the Finnish State Commission of Fine Arts.

Personal history

Kaari Utrio was born in Helsinki to a middle-class family. Her father was Urho Untamo Utrio, who after the Winter War worked as CEO of Tammi, a Finnish publishing company. Her mother Meri Marjatta Utrio (née Vitikainen) worked as an editor and a translator to Finnish. There were about four thousand books in Utrio's home, and literature was greatly valued in her family.

Utrio became acquainted with literature at a young age, when her mother read her classics of world literature, such as Kipling and Shakespeare as bed-time stories. At the age of seven, the first book Utrio read by herself was a thick volume of Jokamiehen Maailmanhistoria (World History for the Everyman). At school Utrio did well, also in composition writing, even though she did not have any plans to become a writer at the time. Instead she wanted to become a researcher of History. Grimberg's Kansojen historia (History of Peoples) offered a lively description of history to the young Utrio.