For many years, fragments of my family's story only lived in old photographs, woollen blankets, embroideries and a necklace. 

As was the case for many families in 1945, the end of the war signaled the close of a chapter too traumatic to be spoken about. Like Pandora's box, memories were pushed aside and survivors turned their attention to rebuilding their lives.  This is the story in my own family and is the reason I’ve called my trilogy “The Silence Between Us.”

The experiences of Dutch and Indo-European families in the Dutch East Indies during the war are often overlooked in mainstream histories. Yet thousands of families experienced separation, internment, loss and uncertainty. At the same time, many displayed remarkable courage, resilience and determination in the face of extraordinary circumstances.

Readers often ask how much of a story is true. The emotional truth of the story is real. The love between family members, the fear, uncertainty, hope and determination were all inspired by actual events and real people. To transform those experiences into a novel, some timelines were adjusted and some scenes were created to connect historical events and maintain narrative flow.

This novel was inspired by the true story of my family and their experiences in the Dutch East Indies during the Second World War. For many years, fragments of these stories existed in family conversations, my father was the baby in this story.  When I was about 3 years old my grandfather came to stay with us, I don’t remember it at all, but my mother had him at home with her while my dad went to work, mum remembered some of the things he told her, very small snippets like his actions in Madiun at the military base.

My father’s sister Auntie Aly has been my greatest source of information, throughout my life whenever I saw her, I would ask her to elaborate on what she had told me previously, graciously she agreed, every time.  When I told her that I would write her story as a book (about 5 years ago) she was delighted, in October this year I will place the book into her hands. 

While the novel is based on real events, it is a work of historical fiction. Some characters, conversations and scenes have been imagined to bring the story to life and create a compelling narrative. Although many of the historical characters were inspired by real people, several fictional characters were created to connect generations and explore the enduring impact of family history. Honor and Kees are such characters.

Those characters who are real have had their names changed because the stories I told about them may not all be historically accurate.  The doctor, his wife, and the nurses were all real people, and their actions and care were remembered by my aunt.  Jantje, Pim and Isobelle are fictional however their experiences are based on real events that took place.  When I was in The Hague in 2025 I visited the Indonesian Dutch War Museum.  It was there that I found the embroidered diary that I have included in the story.  The story of Harry, Kommie and their three children is all accurate.  Rien did call the rice Blubberin, he did hunt for snails and the three children did sleep on the verandah together. 

I have researched as much information as I could about the camps in Ambarawa but have chosen to exclude some of the horrific acts that took place, I wanted this story to be able to be read by young teenagers without being too traumatizing.

One of the greatest privileges of writing this novel was travelling through Indonesia and visiting many of the locations featured in the story. Walking through places such as Bandung, Malang, Madiun, Semarang and Ambarawa gave me a much deeper understanding of the environment in which my family lived, loved, endured hardship and ultimately survived.  My time there was not just interesting from an author’s perspective it was life changing from my own perspective.  Visiting the war cemetery in Semarang was one of the moments in my life that I will never forget.

My hope is that The Golden Lotus Necklace honours not only my own family, but the thousands of Dutch, Indo-European and Indonesian families whose lives were forever changed by war. Their stories deserve to be remembered, and it has been a privilege to help preserve one small part of that history.

Thank you for joining me on this journey.