Hans Hagen
Hans Hagen (b. 1955) likes to travel, as is evident from the subject matter of the stories that he chooses for his books. A number of these books were inspired by a visit to the Middle East. Following his adaptation of the Gilgamesh epic, he wrote about this ancient culture in among others, Het gouden oog (The Golden Eye, 1991) and De weg van de wind (The Way of The Wind, 1992). But his stories for younger children are also set in other cultures, for example De kat en de adelaar (The Cat and The Eagle, 1997). The idea for The Dance of the Drummers was formed during a trip to Ghana. Hagen’s work has regularly been awarded prizes since 1992, most recently the Golden Slate Pencil for The Dance of the Drummers and a Silver Slate Pencil in 2004 for Zwaantje en Lolly Londen.