writer | editor | artist
An audience needs something stronger than a pretty little love story. So, why shouldn’t I write of monsters? (Mary Shelley, the character, from the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein) Darlings! You won’t believe it. (Well, you might). Here’s the most amazing news: in March next year, I’ll be a Guest of Honour at the 39th annual…
No 200 words today! That’s because, instead, I’ve written a guest post/piece of short memoir about my time aboard the SS Ming Hua, as a guest post on Rebecca Jessen’s blog. To read about the pleasures of cruising the Pacific aboard this wonder of the 1980s, take a trip back in time to Ming Hua memories…
Happy New Year! It’s 2015, and I couldn’t be gladder than I am to be welcoming in this fresh new year which, as my old companion Anne Shirley of Green Gables used to say, has no mistakes in it. Not that making mistakes is a problem. One of my favourite anecdotes about how important it…
When I was staying in Amsterdam, I visited Anne Frank House. It was a quiet January morning. I arrived early and wandered through the exhibition, which includes both introductory material about Anne, her family, and the other inhabitants of the Achterhuis during the war, the attic rooms themselves, and (once you’ve left those small, dark…
Dutch writer and illustrator Marie (Rie) Cramer was born in what was then the Dutch East Indies (Java) in 1887. Her father was often at sea, and two of her older sisters were sent to school in the Netherlands in the 1890s. By 1896, however, Rie, her sister Erna, and their mother had all settled…
The second half of the seventeenth century is known, in the Netherlands, as the golden age of the Dutch republic or – more simply – the golden era. But just prior to this period of increased wealth and prosperity, a group of artists and intellectually met regularly at the castle of Muiden, which is just…
Today is the first day of the endurance cycling season in the Netherlands, so all around the country cycling enthusiasts are hitting the roads. In the Netherlands, endurance cycling is more than a national sport. Everyone knows that Amsterdam is the city of bicycles, that a bicycle is part of a Dutchman. As essential to…
The openbare bibliotheek stands on the fresh earth of the Oosterdokskade. As the local people say: God created the earth, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. The Oosterdokskade is an example of the created land of the Netherlands: before the buildings that are spread out along it were built, the land itself had to be…
… and to a fresh new look and direction for Perilous Adventures. For the past several years, Perilous has been an online magazine, featuring interviews with writers, and lots of wonderful new works. You can still access the archive of material by visiting our old site here … In 2013, Perilous will be continuing to feature…