Hanneke Koene
I was born in 1960 in Roermond and grew up in a language-loving family in Limburg. Books were everywhere at home, and we were read to every day as children. Whenever my father had to travel somewhere in the country, he would always bring back a little book he had bought there. I still have most of them, even if they are falling apart with age.
After secondary school I trained as a nursery teacher, primary school teacher and teacher of French — the business economics variant, because I felt I had already studied enough education. It was not until 1991 that I found the work I would go on to do for almost thirty years: I set up children's bookshop De Boekenwurm for Boekhandel Veldeke in Maastricht. In 1996 Veldeke closed and De Boekenwurm continued independently until 2019.
In the meantime I devised Thuis voor Verhalen — a concept for writers. The first plan ran aground on politics; a second version in Noorbeek was blown away by the pandemic. I scaled back to writing commissions and my own free writing.
In 2024 I saw an opportunity to live somewhere different. In the Netherlands I feared I could afford nothing more than a damp flat in a backstreet. France was different. In my search this villa in Villefranche-de-Rouergue appeared, and I fell in love with it immediately. The owner wrote to me that it was a house full of stories — that felt like a sign.
I saw straight away that I could realise an old dream here: giving writers space to work undisturbed. Through De Boekenwurm I had built up an extensive network within the book world and a great deal of experience in assessing children's books. I now work in Villefranche as a correspondent for La Dépêche du Midi, and I am still writing — mainly for adults, but also on a children's art book.
"From day one you believed in me and kept helping me take the next step."
— Michael, assignment in De Biebbende part 7: De Toren van Enigma
Winner De Nederlandse Kinderjury 2019
Through De Boekenwurm in Maastricht, Hanneke Koene guided writers towards their readers for more than two decades. That network and that dedication she brings with her to Villefranche.
Villa des Mots — Femme d’Action
Hanneke Koene loves words; she enjoys talking, but she loves reading even more. What characterises Hanneke above all is her drive. She never lacks good ideas. And she has a talent for getting others enthusiastic. I knew her for years when she ran the only children’s bookshop for miles around in Maastricht. She did it for a long time on the edge of financial disaster, but that never stopped her from carrying out wild plans at every opportunity, helped by a devoted band of volunteers: inviting authors, maintaining contacts with schools, planning and running the annual Children’s Book Week (nobody knows how much work goes into that), organising those special, slightly bizarre Harry Potter nights when the sales embargo on part such-and-such lifted at midnight, arranging exhibitions of well-known and lesser-known children’s book illustrators in the shop, book launches, everything you can think of — all with one overriding goal: promoting reading. Of course she wanted to sell as many books as possible — to keep her head above water. But the shop was not an end in itself. Getting as many children as possible reading was what mattered to her. Whether that happened with a philosophical book like Sophie’s World or with yet another volume of the Magic Tree House series, she did not mind. She always tried to enthuse customers, parents and children for beautiful books, well-written books, books that were different — but she always did her best to find the right book for that one specific child. Bespoke, in other words, and that is only possible if you know what you sell, and therefore read all, every single one of the books in the shop. Or at least try to.
Hanneke has gone to live in France, bought a beautiful old villa and done it up, and started networking almost immediately. I believe she now knows everyone in the area who matters in the book world, and everyone knows her. Her dream was to create a place where writers can stay — for a week, or two or three — to work on a new book in complete peace. She wants to give her guests exactly what they ask for: she will leave you completely alone if you wish, or pop by now and then to see how things are going, have dinner together — or not, chat one evening if you like, or even organise a reading — I’m not a hundred per cent certain about the last one, but I know Hanneke and I know that in Villa des Mots too she will do what she does best: find the right book for that one child. She will give you the stay that is exactly what you want. It does help if you say what you would like, because Hanneke can and does do a great deal, but as far as I know she cannot read minds.
“Villa des Mots should become a place where writers, readers and interested people can come together. In the garden, under the trees, at big tables, on a small stage, in the grass. Come to read, come to write, come to talk, come to do nothing.”
Hanneke welcomes it all and will do everything to make you want to come back.
