10 oktober kwam de Zweedse schrijver Dick Harrison naar Athenaeum Boekhandel Spui om te spreken over zijn boek De Hanze. Wij legden hem onze vragen voor. Lees over J.R.R. Tolkien, Alexandre Dumas, J.K. Rowling, William Shakespeare, het Rijksmuseum en De Hanze!

What book do you reread at least once a year?

The first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I read The Fellowship of the Ring (until the break-up of the fellowship) each year between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, as a morning ritual and as a way of remembering previous Christmases (I read it the first time in 1980, 45 years ago) and revisiting familiar scenes. I find it strangely soothing and comfortable to return to the text that captivated me when I was young.

What was the first book you ever read?

The first real book (not counting children’s stories) I finished reading, that I can remember, is a classic: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (père). I read it in 1974, when I was eight years old. I still remember the reading process, as if it was yesterday.

What book would you like to have written yourself?

I would have loved to have written the Harry Potter-novels!

Someone lends you a time machine. Which writer do you visit?

William Shakespeare. Or, if he is unavailable, one of the evangelists, preferably Luke (or whoever wrote his gospel).

What is your favourite spot in Amsterdam?

The Rijksmuseum. I love art museums, and I can easily spend ours at museums such as this one.

What did you enjoy most while working on De Hanze?

Feeling the entire Northern European Middle Ages unravel in front of my eyes. I literally felt like entering a time machine, ending up in ordinary streets, squares, ports and merchant houses 600 or 700 years ago.