Hella Haasse was one of the first Dutch writers to be widely known outside of The Netherlands. In her sixty year writing career, the author has become one of the most read of all Dutch novelists. She died on 29 September 2011.

Hella Haasse - A Pitcher from Arelate

Hella Haasse was born in 1918 in Batavia, the colonial Dutch East Indies. Her father was a government official and her mother a pianist. Her childhood there inspired many of her books, including her 1948 debut novel ‘Oeroeg’ which has gained the status of a classic in Dutch literature. In 2009, it was selected for the Nederland Leest (Netherlands Reads) project which distributed thousands of copies free of charge through Dutch libraries.
 
Passion for reading

As a youngster, Haasse developed a passion for reading and theatre. She was especially drawn to historical fiction. She wrote her first historical novel at the age of eleven and has continued to write in the genre throughout her career. Her most famous example is ‘Het woud der verwachting’ (In a Dark Wood Wandering). A fictional biography of the 15th century poet-statesman Charles d’Orléans, the 1949 book brought her international acclaim when published in an English translation by Ina Rilke in 1989.
 
“I have a created a whole family in my head which I still often think about,” Haasse says, “and it's buried so deep within me, it's penetrated my personality so entirely, that's it's impossible to get rid of.”

Haasse has received numerous prestigious awards for her work, including the 2004 Dutch Literature Prize. Despite her advanced years, she's still extraordinarily productive. In 2006 she published a series of short series under the title ‘Tuinhuis’ (The Garden House).

Chasing stars

In 2007 she discovered an old manuscript from 1949. It was called ‘Sterrenjacht’ (Chasing Stars) and in 1950 was published in a Dutch newspaper under the pseudonym C.J.van der Sevensterre - a surname that is translated literally as ‘of the seven stars.’ Until then it wasn't known she had used a pseudonym and the book was re-published to great acclaim.
 
Shortly after this some astronomers in Leiden discovered an asteroid and decided that what better name to give it than that of the author herself - she of the seven stars and the chaser of stars. Apparently, Hella Haasse is about 350 million kilometers from the sun and takes more than  three and a half earth years to make one complete orbit.
 
Sea of sounds

Her contribution to RadioBooks is also in the historical genre. It's set in Arles in southern France when it was still known as Arelate - the very first Roman town to be built in what was then called Gaul. Arelate had been established by the Roman emperor Julius Caesar after the defeat of his enemy Pompey in 49BC. A shepherdess journeys from the stark scrubland of the Provencal countryside to Arelate in order to find the father of her new-born son.
 
“Dizzy with all the sights she had seen, she rested in the warm breeze. People surged past in a sea of sounds. Many of their languages were unknown to her. She had drunk water at a fountain and eaten a piece of  bread from her bag, and now she sat in the shade of the half-open passage beneath the many-columned building, which was  crowded at this time of day. On her way there she had crossed a neighbourhood where the air was thick with chalk dust, and where the street noise was drowned out by the pounding of hammers and rasping of saws. She had been intrigued by the goods on display and the pungent smells of unfamiliar brews and bakeries, but had hurried onwards all the same.”
 
Through this simple woman's eyes one can imagine how awe-inspiring this new Roman town must have been. The narrator imagines the might and ambition of the Roman Empire and how its European colonies were changing beyond recognition.
 
‘A Pitcher from Arelate’ by Hella Haasse was translated by Ine Rilke. The story is read by Chris Chambers.

The series Radio Books is an initiative of Flemish-Dutch Huis de Buren in Brussels, in association with the Flemish radio broadcaster Klara and Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

• This page was originally published on 7 June 2010