WRITINGS OR TRANSLATIONS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE:

1. Images from My Childhood, by Hüb Frenken, translated from the Dutch by Sjef Frenken. ISBN-10-73251-04-4, ISBN-13-978-90-73251-04-5

This mostly biographical book chronicles the earliest fourteen years of Dr J. H. Frenken's life in a small village in Limburg, the southern-most province of The Netherlands, where the author was born in 1907. It includes his memories of the principal movers-and-shakers of the village, the war of '14-'18, the traumatic experience of his First Confession and all it entailed, the break-out of the Spanish Flu, and other defining events in his young life. All told with humour and charm.

The author learned to fly in the Dutch Army, was a pilot for KLM and later became a dermatologist. He died in 2001. More information about his life, his paintings and writing (in Dutch), is available on the website www.jhfrenken.nl .

If you wish to obtain one or more copies, click here to order. Or you can order it through your friendly neighbourhood book store.


[sold out]

2. Love Was Light – The Collected Poems of Brendan Emmett Foley,
edited by Sjef Frenken. ISBN 978-0-9693863-1-5.

Brendan Emmett Foley was born in Montreal in 1937. He was educated at St Willibrord’s primary school, and graduated cum laude with a B.A. and the Governor-General’s medal from Loyola College in Montreal. He continued his studies at the University of Toronto, where he obtained his M.A. in English. Foley taught at Notre Dame University College in Nelson, B.C. and at King Edward College (which later became Langara College) in Vancouver. Brendan Emmett Foley died in 2006 in Vancouver.

Foley started writing poetry in his youth, and continued to do so throughout his life. This collection represents his life’s output.

If you wish to obtain one or more copies, click here to order. Or you can order it through a book store.

[This book is currently sold out. If you’d like to be put on the list for a second edition, whenever that becomes available, Please e-mail us .]



3. PIET SOER AND OTHERS OF THE OLD EAST-INDIES LINE,
by J. H. (Hüb) Frenken, translated from the Dutch by Sjef Frenken.
ISBN 978-90-73251-05-02,

J. H. Frenken was a pilot for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in the 1930s and 1940s. His book focusses on Piet Soer, one of KLM's earliest pilots, with whom Frenken, as co-pilot, made a number of flights from Amsterdam to what is now Indonesia. Such a flight could take up to 11 days. The book also touches on most of the other ten of KLM's 34 pilots at the time, who also lost their lives flying for the airline in its early days.

Frenken's vivid descriptions highlight the risks as well as adventures of flying in those days. Softcover; 148 pages, with more than 60 photos.

More information about his life as a pilot and a medical doctor, his paintings and writings (in Dutch), is available on the website www.jhfrenken.nl .He died in 2001.

If you wish to obtain one or more copies, click here to order. Or you can order it through your friendly neighbourhood book store.

4. “My Lunches with Jack”, a series of brief sketches that may be read on the website grubstreet.ca. New episodes are added from time to time. (While on grubstreet.ca, also check out the articles by humourist David Simmonds.)