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Welcome to my publications’ website!
Ever since I was a law student I have had a passion for writing and publishing various kinds of publications. I wrote articles for magazines and law journals and became editor of various publications of a pan-European law students association – ELSA – and its alumni organisation.
My work as a banking and investment lawyer with global banks for over 25 years and the lack of thrillers and fiction books set in the world of business and finance, has inspired and challenged me to write fiction. There have been many colourful stories, developments and people in business, finance and law that have made great non-fiction books, documentaries and more. Not many have been turned into fiction however. I considered it a fun challenge to write entertaining fiction of this kind, unlike the usual court room, espionage and murder stories found in most thrillers.
So far I have written a legal business thriller in Dutch (“Witte Inkt”, 2013), a professionally translated English edition (“White Ink”, 2015), a collection of financial fairy tales (“One Billion and One Dirham – Financial Fairy Tales”) and most recently a Shakespearean play with a collection of over twenty short poems (“Macbet & King Liar – Financial Tragedy & Poetry”, 2023). I consider the fairy tales and poetry books as somewhat exceptional side steps I wrote for the fun and challenge of having written fairy tales and poetry as part of a more diverse range of publications. I intend to continue writing thrillers set in a world of finance, business and / or law.
My first novel, a legal business thriller entitled “White Ink”, became the first ever fictional work to be published by a prominent law publisher – Sdu Uitgevers – as part of its Criminal Law portfolio. It went on to become a top 10 thriller debut in the Netherlands and was used by a leading bank and Montblanc as relationship gifts. The English edition was a no 1 fiction publishing project on Kickstarter.com and sold in over 30 countries.
I self-published “One Billion and One Dirham – Financial Fairy Tales”, a collection of some of the best known fairy tales, rewritten to be set in the world of finance. I was inspired by the magic view from my Abu Dhabi apartment over Emirates Palace and the UAE Presidential Palace to write fairy tales and decided to turn the famous 1001 Arabian Nights into a financial setting. It became the no. 1 of all publishing projects on Kickstarter.com and sold in over 20 countries.
My most recent book – “Macbet & King Liar – Financial Tragedy & Poetry” – was born out of fun and challenge to rewrite famous works of another genre into a financial setting: poetry. Shakespeare turned out to be not just a famous poet to base a story on, but also offered very suitable characters, quotes and tragedies. It again became a no 1 publishing project on Kickstarter, this time in the Poetry category.
Photo’s courtesy Jan-Aldert Vrij
