Usually it goes like this: a writer writes a book or story and the illustrator makes drawings. But for ‘Mr Makkelie’s Night Lanterns’ it went exactly the other way around. Illustrator Alice Hoogstad created 14 eye-catching prints and asked 13 authors to come up with a story to go with it. Sjoerd Kuyper, Paul van Loon, Annet Schaap, Bart Moeyaert, Bette Westera, Daan Remmerts de Vries, Dolf Verroen, Jan Paul Schutten, Jowi Schmitz, Koos Meinderts, Marancke Rinck, Marjolijn Hof and I took up the challenge myself. We couldn’t choose, you got the print and that’s what you had to write about. A wonderful exercise in inventing.