hazelhoff

＂The book, the movie and now the musical about the Soldier of Orange, has been a best seller, award-winning Golden Globe motion picture, and presently the musical in Holland breaking all records for a 6-year run. But who was the man behind this phenomenon? What made him the person he became? From his birth in Java to his death in Hawaii, this memoir answers these questions in his last book Win A Few. An idyllic childhood in Soerabaya, in The Dutch East Indies... learning the culture and spending hours in a banyan tree, made an indelible impression on this child of the Netherlands. Always curious, he broke the usual boundaries of his generation to follow his own path. Originally printed in hard cover titled ’In Pursuit of Life. and ’Op ’Jacht near het Leven’ in Dutch.＂--

An Odyssey from childhood in Java through the shock treatment of World War 2, the chaotic experience of American immigration, to the pinnacles of the broadcasting world, the pitfalls of success in the financial and royal circles of Europe. The title ’Win A Few’ describes pride followed by the proverbial fall and the grinding climb back to a happy ending on a tropical island. Erik Hazelhoff describes himself as a ＂hybrid creature fueled as much by Eastern mysticism as by Western ambition, slowly evolving from from a hyper-conservative to full membership in the human race.＂ Add a revolution, a knighthood, a best-seller, an award- winning motion picture and a musical, a true love, a passion for freedom and a comfortable relationship with death, and you have the main elements of Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema’s romp through the 20th and 21st centuries. The definitive memoir of Holland’s best known hero of World War 2 as a ’Soldier of Orange’ - has been expanded to include the origins of his life’s philosophy, which also carried him through the postwar era to the end of an extraordinary 90-year journey. To quote one of his axioms: ＂Yes Virginia, there is life after 70 ＂