Edward van de Vendel

For this new big poetry collection (twice as many poems as What to do when you trip over a hippo) Martijn van der Linden and I collaborated again - which makes me pretty happy and blissful.

I wrote fifty poems that highlight different aspects of being happy (or unhappy). But... the poems are written from the minds, mouths and beaks of the animals that live at a small farm that is called Happy & Blissful. There are donkeys and turtles, there are the two cats called Hannes and Hassan, the wise mama pig is there, and sadly the wonderful cow Golden Rose has just passed away.

And do we read it well? Do all their ideas overlap completely with our human ideas about happiness?

• Book design by Roald Triebels.

• A sample translation into English is available.

• Rights can be obtained at my publisher, Querido, Amsterdam: here.