Richard de Nooy

Author's details

Biography

Richard de Nooy (1965) grew up in South Africa and vowed to travel the world. He didn’t get much further than Amsterdam, where he has lived for the past 25 years. He spends his days writing and translating and staring at the sky, trying to guess where the planes are going. He will be mapping his ignorance of the world’s cities from his desk chair, using his preferred mode of transport; the worldwide web. He hopes readers will excuse his ignorance and help fill the vast gaps in his knowledge with entertaining and enlightening anecdotes about their home towns. Richard de Nooy’s novels have been published in English and Dutch. You’ll find further information on his site www.richarddenooy.com. Photo by Stefanie Grätz

Latest posts

  1. My Father and the Sunflowers — May 3, 2013
  2. You Vee Double-You Ex Why Zzzzz — April 12, 2013
  3. Wandering Art — March 29, 2013
  4. “Hey, they all start with T!” — March 15, 2013
  5. Musical masters painting in perfect unison — February 22, 2013

Author's posts listings

22
Apr
posted by Richard de Nooy at 14:00 comment View Comments
cuckoo clock

I do not dislike Switzerland, but we got off to a bad start. It all began with my stamp collection, which I mentioned previously.  I wasted quite a few hours trying to find Helvetia on the map, only to discover that this was the Latin name for Switzerland. My second brush with Switzerland came with the… read more »

15
Apr
posted by Richard de Nooy at 14:00 comment View Comments
Panama Boat

(A short story inspired by photos my wife took in Panama.) “You can never give enough money to a poor man,” smiled ferryman Raphael, pocketing his fee and steering his canoe into the choppy waters off El Porvenir. “Kuna. Like me,” he said proudly, nodding to the colourful family of five, who had quickly leapt… read more »

08
Apr
posted by Richard de Nooy at 14:00 comment View Comments
Prague overrun by tourists attracted by the promise of cheap beer.

Over the centuries, the Czech nation has been overrun by Swedes, Turks, Hungarians, Tatars, Prussians, Austrians, Germans, Russians, and now the Dutch, myself included, seeking cheap winter sports resorts. The Czech response to these uninvited guests was perhaps best encapsulated by Reinhardt Heydrich, Reichs Protector of Bohemia in the Second World War. In his first report… read more »

01
Apr
posted by Richard de Nooy at 14:00 comment View Comments
In search of poems about Guayaquil

I was going to write about Sao Paulo, but big cities are like cool kids in the playground, making life hard for the underdogs, the modest kids who often go unnoticed. The Ecuadorian sisters Quito and Guayaquil, for example, whose names are usually uttered in a single breath by my wife, the professional traveller: “Ah… read more »

25
Mar
posted by Richard de Nooy at 15:00 comment View Comments
singapore.skyline

The torrential shower drives bedraggled strangers into the hotel lobby, warm rain battering the huge flowers in the beds outside. They nod their heavy heads against the base of the towering windows, begging to come indoors, where gloved waiters coast silently among the tables, serving gin slings to elegant patrons. “It really is little more… read more »

18
Mar
posted by Richard de Nooy at 10:00 comment View Comments
a330

“The ocean of the air connects us all” – this was one of the favourite quotes of aviation pioneer Albert Plesman, who co-founded KLM in 1919. His words seem even more appropriate today, with hundreds of thousands of air bridges connecting continents. I’d even venture to claim that an airline is more like a road… read more »

11
Mar
posted by Richard de Nooy at 12:00 comment View Comments
Portland

I once went to a beach in Denmark. Expecting merry umbrellas flapping in the soft sand, I found instead a rock-hard strip of land occupied by a long row of cars parked side by side, with Danish families sheltering between them on folding chairs, apparently unaware that they looked like extras in some surrealistic outdoor… read more »