World War II history

"The dark cloud envelopes us again" – excerpts from the wartime diary of Max Hes

18/11/22

In the summer of 1942, a Jewish haberdasher from the Dutch town of Zwolle sought refuge in the Trophy Room of Zwaluwenburg Manor, which was then a psychiatric institution for women and girls. Michel Leo (Max) Hes meticulously recorded the mounting tension in his journal.

Dutch Skating Traditions — all the ficts

14/12/22

As temperatures drop, Dutch people become increasingly excited about strapping razor-sharp knives to their feet and getting in each other's way on a stupidly slippery surface. That means it's time to share some ficts about this great Dutch tradition.

letter

Chapter 92 | Had I intended to write all this? ⁠— a letter from 1943

14/3/23

In early 1943, the German occupying forces tightened restrictions on telephone traffic. Travel by train was dangerous due to attacks by Allied warplanes, so my grandparents and aunt began writing letters to mother, who was then 20 and working as a trainee nurse at a psychiatric institution for women and girls, located out in the countryside about 100 kilometres from home in Amsterdam. After my mother's death, I read the 25 letters she had kept for the first time. My grandmother died in 1947, so these letters are my only connection with her.

kort verhaal

Allemaal onzin natuurlijk

19/5/21

Dit verhaal verscheen eerder in een bundel ter viering van Guus Bauers 60ste verjaardag, waarin schrijvers op uitnodiging van David de Poel vertelden over hun meest miserabele bijbaantjes.

Letters

Preemptive Letters of Rejection

19/5/21

A series of letters to McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Paris Review, Playgirl, The New Yorker, Granta Magazine, Oprah Winfrey, the Nobel Prize and the Prime Minister of Canada, pre-emptively rejecting their offers to exploit my literary assets.

blog

Drie generaties meelopers

19/5/21

‘Het is makkelijk praten vanuit de helikopter,’ tweette ik gisteren aan een vriendin, toen ze haar bezorgdheid uitsprak over het protest op de Dam, waar mijn jongste dochter aan meedeed. Ze is negentien maar gaat inmiddels al aardig wat jaartjes haar eigen gang in Amsterdam.

oorlogsherinnering

Mijn moeder en de Schriele Gevangene

18/11/22

Mijn moeder zou vandaag 99 zijn geworden. Altijd als ik gesoigneerde fascisten op de kanalen zie moet ik aan haar denken. Vooral aan het oorlogstrauma dat ervoor gezorgd heeft dat ook ik weet dat iedereen een stem mag hebben, zelfs als daar uitsluitend haat mee wordt gezaaid...

News

Unbearable Joy – a Slovenian translation from my latest novel

10/12/17

Neznosna radost – Unbearable Joy – is the beautiful Slovenian title of a story from my latest novel Van Kleine Helden (All The Little Heroes), which was recently published in the leading Slovenian literary magazine Literatura.

Poem

Things I Have Said About Rain

19/5/21

A poem about love composed of selected #walk tweets about rain.

On writing

Compendium of Useless Writing Tips

31/8/17

This compendium of #UselessWritingTips will be regularly updated. Or not. They have been posted in reverse order to save you having to scroll down. You should be writing, not reading tips.