Fiction to Devour
Summer is my season for idleness. I relish the peaceful days and slower pace that summer brings. With regular activities on hiatus, I have time for relaxing in the shade of an umbrella, enjoying informal gatherings with friends, experimenting with new recipes, taking...
Architectural Gems: Past and Present
…the tarnished nameplate fixed to the wall: Begijnhof Sint-Catharine. Passing a gatehouse, they emerge into a large courtyard. Brick buildings on all sides rise three-storeys high, each façade decorated with crow-stepped gables, typical of sixteenth-century houses of...
Learning to Listen
Several years ago, with the aim of increasing my daily steps, I purchased a monthly audiobook subscription. With my trainers laced up and earbuds in place, I strode down the street listening to Natasha Pulley’s fast-paced fantasy adventure The Watchmaker of Filigree...
The ENGRAVER in Dutch
While I was writing The Engraver, I imagined most of the characters spoke Dutch to one another. The seventeenth-century protagonist Antonia chattered in Dutch to the family maid as they walked to Grotemarkt in the centre of Antwerp. The modern-day protagonist...