Leiden Holland 1644

Boasting the world’s first stock-exchange in the mid-seventeenth century, Holland wielded massive power with its historic hegemony from its booming slave- and spice-trades in the eastern hemisphere. Its navy dwarfed those of all other nations globally, and consequently held unmatched influence in the Cape, Asia and Europe. The Dutch East India Company -Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie – VOC’s – maritime supremacy stretched from Persia to Japan and included Sri Lanka, Taiwan and through the Malacca straits where it also held sway in Indonesia in modern day Jakarta as the VOC’s eastern interests were headquartered there. This book intertwines our main protagonist Maria by espousing her nail-biting experiences within this period, which have been thoroughly researched and are historically accurate. It concludes with her arrival in the virgin ‘Cape of Good Hope’ to set up a waystation for the VOC on the southernmost tip of the African continent – occupied by its indigenes.

Author Biography

I started my writing career as a financial journalist where, as a stringer, I covered all aspects of the Southern African money markets for London based UPI (United Press International). My next career path was as a copywriter in the advertising industry. For just over twenty years, I was a part of various creative teams and I worked on a number of international brands. Because of my journalistic background, I migrated to become a brand-analyst, and wrote brand-plans for a wide spectrum of market-leading, global trademarks. I co-authored the launch of the Human Rights Campaign covering the first democratic elections for Nelson Mandela’s, ‘New South Africa.’ I personally researched the hugely diverse demographic population and designed the blueprint with a message that had to simultaneously address what is probably one of the widest psychographic audience profiles of any marketing campaign ever launched. The challenge was to target semi-literate hut-dwellers to sophisticated personnel working for multinational giant corporations housed in glittering high-risers – with one campaign. Also, I recently qualified with TEFL 5 certification as an English teacher for higher grades.