Hans Goedkoop

(Ermelo, NL, 1963) is an historian and literary critic. During his work for the television history programme "Andere Tijden" (Different Times) he stumbled on a short film in which his grandfather, a colonel, is present at the departure of Dutch troops from Yogyakarta in 1949. It was the beginning of his quest into his grandfather's past, published in 2012 as the book De laatste man (The Last Man). Goedkoop has made a public appeal not the allow the Dutch East Indies colonists to fall into historic oblivion: people can add their stories on www.delaatsteman.nl. Goedkoop worked for the Dutch weekly magazine Haagse Post before moving on to the VPRO network in 1991. Since 1995 he has written about literature for the daily paper NRC Handelsblad. In 1996 he received his PhD with honours for a biography of Dutch playwright Herman Heijermans, Geluk (Happiness). Een verhaal dat het leven moet veranderen (A Story to Change One's Life) was published in 2004, featuring essays on the relationship between contemporary Dutch literature and reality. Goedkoop made a successful television documentary series, De Gouden Eeuw (The Golden Age), and is now writing a biography of Dutch writer Renate Rubinstein.