Welcome

Dan van der Vat is my real name (I could hardly have made it up). It is a Dutch name; I was born and lived my first six years in the Netherlands, where my father was also born. There is more on the Biography page. Meanwhile, welcome to my website.

I was a newspaper journalist for nearly thirty years until I became a full-time, self-employed author. The two careers overlapped by about ten years, so that when I took the plunge and made the big switch to books at the turn of 1988-89, I had already published four volumes of naval history.

Lucky escape
I have been lucky to get away with making a living from writing history until I qualified for my bus pass. I have completed fourteen books, all non-fiction. Two were international bestsellers; three won

literary accolades; twelve have been published in America, and they have appeared in a total of fourteen languages. The reviews have almost always been positive, sometimes very much so. Yet, although I have a viable idea for a fifteenth book, I cannot at the moment find a publisher for it. My theory for why not is on the News & Views page. Warning: strong (though clean) language…

The Quick and the Dead
I retain one link with journalism: obituaries (and occasionally features) for The Guardian newspaper in London. I started with naval ones, thanks to my new-found knowledge of maritime history in the twentieth century.  Then I was allowed to advance into the military and even the aviation fields. Next, my time in South Africa, and later in Germany, and my knowledge of Dutch affairs were remembered, enabling me quietly to expand my morbid empire.

When I pointed out to the editors that as a journalist I had been, and remained, a generalist, I was commissioned to write about such unlikely luminaries as a London night-club owner notorious in the

1970s. The obits fall into two categories: those written when someone has just died, and those about famous individuals, which are written in advance, for “stock”.  It can be  very satisfying to write about someone in the past tense when he or she is still with us: P.W. Botha, the brutal former president of South Africa, springs to mind. So does Lord Hussey, former chairman of the BBC and newspaper magnate. I must draw a discreet veil over the stock obits that I still have lurking in The Guardian system. There are quite a few: keep an eye on the relevant pages and website. I shall always be grateful to the deceased for keeping me warm and paying my fuel bills. You can get at my obituaries (and other features) via www.guardian.co.uk/news, entering my name in the search box.

Once again, welcome to this website, in which you can read about my life, my work and, from time to time, my news and views about current topics.