Judith was born on a sunny morning in the early spring of 1980, just as the daffodils were emerging from their winter sleep. The Netherlands was full of ill-founded optimism and so was she. Her earliest attempts at writing bore testament to this cheerful overconfidence, taking on a full rewrite of both the Bible and James & the Giant Peach before the age of 8.  

Growing up, Judith’s relationship with reality was problematic. It did not measure up to her imagination, but she was also not content to abandon it completely in favour of make-believe. Instead of just pretending to run a roller-skating school for young ladies, therefore, she went one step further and wrote a full roller-skating methodology and workbook on her parents’ typewriter and persuaded her friends to attend. Similarly, her Secret Club of 3 detective bureau could not just remain a game and Judith (aged 9) wrote a letter to the local police force offering their services in solving tricky crimes. She received a big envelope in response, which contained a spiral bound copy of the Local Police Department Year Book 1989 and a letter politely declining the offer of help. 

Separating stories from reality did not get any easier as she grew up. Her diaries were full of determined attempts to detect patterns and plot lines in her own life: a dead pigeon on the road became a portent of impending disaster and minor friendship dramas were woven into epic tragedies that Euripides would not have been ashamed of. Nothing brought her more delight than when on a joint school camp, she recognised one of the 12-year-old boys from the other school as the long-lost Boy Next Door that she used to play with when they were 3 years old. She knew it. Everything was connected.

The boy next door proved to be a red herring, but Judith was undeterred and has continued creating narratives ever since: out of her own life, the lives of her friends or simply out of her imagination.

She currently teaches English, has a translation business mainly focused on the Arts and Entertainment industry, and has been known, on occasion, to record audiobooks for money.