The Bullerby series is one of Astrid Lindgren’s most autobiographical texts, and, among Swedes, one of the best loved. But among contemporary critics one can sometimes see an ambivalent attitude towards the perceived idealisation of Bullerby. The books are lauded for their popular appeal yet criticised for being unrealistic and setting a standard impossible to live up to. “The Bullerby village does not exist. Has it ever existed?” one critic asks rhetorically. Undeniably, Bullerby is far removed from contemporary culture – except as consumable nos-talgia – and it no doubt appears fictional and unrealistic to most Swedes: upholding as it does a norm which may be difficult to live up to. Indeed, it seems that “Bullerby” has become the received, idealised story of our forebears. However, as this article sets out to show, this is an anachronistic way of reading the Bullerby books. My argument is that by using a traditional, anti-modern, but essentially realistic genre, Lindgren sets up an alternative vision of the good society to that provided by modernity, and thus recuperates a past that at the time of writing (late 40’s – early 50’s) was being repressed and written out of history.