Biography

Marjolijn Hof was born in Amsterdam in 1956. Shortly afterwards she moved to The Hague. She grew up in a treasure house. Her father was not only a psychologist but an artist and art collector into the bargain. There were bookcases everywhere – Marjolijn could always find something to read. At an early age she was already making books of stories and drawings.

She loved to be by herself, tinkering with something or other. She had some strange notions about realizing her ideas, so the results tended to be rather odd. Somehow she would always get carried away during her projects and end up with knotty knitted pot-holders or drawings that wouldn’t fit on the paper. Though everyone thought highly of her creativity and inventiveness, Marjolijn was invariably disappointed with the results.

She was determined to make something normal for a change ...

But somehow it never quite worked out.

Kindergarten and primary school (First Dutch Montessori School) were in the same building. Marjolijn found the playground rather exciting. Also, the North Sea dunes were nearby and it gave her rather a thrill to go cycling there all by herself.
There was the smell of eglantine and Marjolijn would make herself believe her bike was a horse. Occasionally she would forget she had left the dune area and people would give her funny looks. What a strange way to ride a bike!

In her final year at primary school Marjolijn wrote a play, Be careful Saint Nicholas. There was to be a performance and the teacher sent the text to Dutch author Mies Bouhuys, who commented on it in her reply. The teacher decided to keep that letter, for reasons of her own.
Marjolijn wanted to be a children’s book writer or an artist. But definitely not an actress. She had acted in her own play and found it scary. She had to wear a blue sequined dress and her knees just wouldn’t stop trembling on stage.

After primary school Marjolijn went to the Montessori Lyceum in The Hague. She did badly in mathematics, physics and all other subjects that involved arithmetic. Drawing and Dutch, on the other hand, went swimmingly.
She read poems and novels and was even editor of the school magazine for a while. She began stories which stopped halfway and she did lots of drawings. She still wanted to do something arty but a career as a writer seemed a castle in the air at the time.
After passing her exams Marjolijn felt at a loss; she lived in digs in The Hague and had some odd jobs. As she was supposed to make her way in the world after all, she followed a few courses at the Library and Documentation Academy. Well, at least the skills she learned had something to do with books. She studied first in The Hague and then moved to Amsterdam. She got a job opportunity right after graduation. They had a job for her in Wormerveer Library and she moved to nearby Krommenie. She worked full hours at first, but less after her daughter Jotte had been born. She married Otto.
She still longed to really write. She wrote poems and short stories – most of them without a proper beginning or ending. The poems were for adults and the stories nearly always for children. That was a conscious choice. Marjolijn had grown up with magical children’s books and as a librarian she had specialised in children’s literature. (She is still amazed that people keep asking her when she’s going to write a ‘real novel’. Then she will explain for the umpteenth time that children’s books are written with just as much love and craftsmanship as novels.)

Writing grew more and more important to Marjolijn. She attended Writers School ‘t Colofon. She contributed short stories to a number of story collections.
Trying to combine all her activities left her with very little time. In 1999 she finally took the plunge. After almost twenty years Marjolijn resigned as a librarian. A professional writer was what she was going to be.

Translated by Marius Jaspers