Torenhoog En Mijlen Breed by Tonke Dragt

Both novels were written on loose sheets of used paper and toilet rolls due to the lack of proper notebooks. A second, never completed book, De Florentijnse ring would be a motive for a part of her debut novel De verhalen van de tweelingbroers. Dragt also provided illustrations for this novel. To solve this problem, aged 13, she and her friend Tineke decided to write a novel, De jacht op de touwkleurige ( The hunt for the rope-coloured) under the pen name Tito Drastra. As reading had been her biggest hobby, Dragt found herself often bored as there were no novels. The situation in the camp was adverse, shortages of food and other essentials were prevalent. ĭuring the Second World War, Dragt, her mother and her two sisters were interned in Japanese prisoner's camp Tjideng. The inspiration for several of her early novels such as De brief voor de koning en Geheimen van het Wilde Woud were taken from her yearly Summer holidays at Puncak and Situgunung. Her family environment was creative: her father and one of her sisters were also interested in writing and the Dragt family had their own 'house library'. Dragt was initially called 'Tonneke' (Dutch for 'tubby'), a name she disliked 'because I was tall and thin'. Her book De brief voor de Koning was chosen by CPNB as the best Dutch youth book of the latter half of the twentieth century.īiography Childhood in Batavia Īntonia Johanna Willemina Dragt, better known as Tonke Dragt, was born in 1930 in Batavia on the Dutch East Indies (currently Jakarta in Indonesia) as the eldest daughter of a Dutch insurance agent based in Batavia. Batavia, Dutch East Indies (Present day Jakarta, Indonesia)Īntonia 'Tonke' Johanna Willemina Dragt (born 12 November 1930) is a Dutch writer and illustrator of children's literature.

Torenhoog En Mijlen Breed by Tonke Dragt