Introduction

I was born on February 18, 1958 in Rotterdam, a large city in The Netherlands and I lived there my entire childhood. As a child my greatest hobbies were drawing, reading and writing stories. I dreamed about writing children’s books that were illustrated by me. As a teenager I wrote my first long story (that ended up in the back of my closet) and began making illustrations for a collection of some well-known fairy tales that I had (re)written myself.

For a long time I was determined to study at the art academy once I had finished secondary school. But loads of schoolwork made it difficult for me to do a lot of drawing. Besides that, people often told me that with an artistic education I would never find a job anyhow. So once I passed my exams I decided to go to Law School. That turned out to be a mistake. I quit and found a job. For the next twenty or twenty five years I would hardly touch a (drawing) pencil or brush.

One day, while cleaning out my closet, I found my first story again. I decided to rewrite it (it was rather shaky) to see if it could be published. Alas! The publishers showed no interest whatsoever, but by that time I had written a second story: Tim. And yes! Internet publisher Gopher liked the story and was prepared to bring the book on the market. Astrid de Groot made the illustrations and the book was published in 2002. By that time a new story was ready and waiting. The literal translation of the title would be: Daddy Without Words, for, unfortunately, the story hasn’t been translated in English yet. (Neither has Tim, by the way.)

By now I had lost my job because of a reorganisation and I was pregnant with my daughter. It gave me time to draw again and created the perfect moment to make the illustrations for Daddy Without Words. The book was published by the end of 2003.

It took me twenty five years to find out that drawing, painting and writing are still my favourite activities. But better late than never!

Now I am a freelance illustrator and copywriter and in the mean time try to write some new childrens stories.