Introduction
A short description of a future Holland

Map of Holland
Chaos visualised

Dutch Customs
A comprehensive guide to a future Holland

Characters
Meet the inmates of an open asylum

Glossary
Learn some important Dutch words and phrases

Back
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Here is a list of characters mentioned in Dutch Courage. The list might not be completed. In that case come again later or leave a message in the forum.
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Dramatic Personalities

Here is a list of characters from Dutch Courage in random order. Use the search-function of your browser to find specific persons.

Magda Pronk

Magda Pronk. An elderly woman, working her pants of in the RLD of The Hague. She is Mad Jack’s neighbour, and has her window under his dwelling. She likes cozy and all things cute and feminin, like fancy clothes. Like all women she is a clever business woman. She is good at her job. One of her extra abilities is, that she is a zipper - she has pockets under her skin, which comes in handy because her job forces her to be clad in lingery only.

Magda was, apart from Mad Jack, the first character in the story. She is introduced when a taxman rings at Mad Jack’s doorbell and Jack tells him “If you come to bring me Jesus, maybe Magda is interested.” Magda is short for Maria Magdalena, a bit of a tasteless joke. From there she develops into a main character, helping out Mad Jack whereever she can. Later, she got the surname “Pronk”, meaning “ostentation”, but it is also a well known name in The Hague.
Although never really made exactly clear, one can gather from the story Magda used to be a man a long time ago, being a reaction on the fact in the Lonely Planet that “in Holland, you can have a sex change on the national health scheme” (which is not quite true anyway).

Mijnheer Jansen
Mijnheer Pietersen

All male members of FIOD have very common names, so the say the “Smiths and Jones” of Holland, stressing their interchancability. All male members of FIOD are dressed in black or blue suits, carry a traditional Samsonite suitcase as a weapon, and wear black painted clogs with leather soles. They walk around like yuppies, the gentlemen from long ago, which makes them quite suspect around the tulipfields and in the RLD. None of them uses drugs. One might think the Man from FIOD are robots.

Men in black. The feared persons from an almost anonymous organistation. Like in the movie Men in Black of the Agents in The Matrix. That was what I had in mind when creating the Men from FIOD. They should be the persons that everybody knows -and fears-, and not like some Rambo kind of enemy. The MoF don’t have proper weapons, except for their sharp-edged suitcases. And their bureacracy. They don’t look dangerous, but everybody fears them. Underneath their attitude, the MoF are not very bright, this being based on the experiences I had with the real FIOD.

King Alex X

And then, there was the King. No one really remembers who he exactly is or where he came from, so he got the surname X. He is in his forties, and worries a lot for his kingdom. He wears gold painted clogs, a crown that looks like gold but most probably isn’t, and sometimes a mantle. His belly has been build by beer and he looks rather healthy compared to other persons.
He is married to princess Leila and lives with her and some servants in the Royal Bunker in The Hague, where he has a beercellar and a nice collection of art.

Holland is a monarchy, and I wanted it to stay that way. Having to deal with only one leader who stands far above political intrigue worked far better in the story than some political person. Mad Jack is -being an anarchist- loyal to his king, and he could never been loyal to someone with a political background.
Of course there should be some connection to the current royal family. I picked some aspects from the life of our heir to the throne and gave Alex X these features. First, the name. Alex is not an uncommon name in the dutch royal family. Second, the King is blond and, third, he likes beer. I did not want to take it too far, because it should be clear that Alex X is not the current heir to the throne. All in all, I think he works very well as a King of a deranged country. He loves his servants, he wants the best for his country, and he tries to act like a king, even though he can be quite melancholic about it.

Floris V

An obscure name in the story for those who don’t know Dutch History. Floris V is not a character in the story. The name appears as the “Floris V Canal”, which points to the canal where Floris V, count of Holland, was murdered by a mob of noblemen a long, long time ago, because he was too popular with the common people.

Baby

Baby is not human, but is a character of her own. She is a battered AK47, owned by Mad Jack. The gun is black, with reddish wood. She is about 4, 5 kiloes heavy, enough to abuse her butt-end when necessary. She is not only a weapon to Mad Jack, but also his tool of the euthanisation trade.

To me, it was clear from the beginning Mad Jack carried a AK47. Even far before the story came to mind, the AK47 was there. The AK47 is the gun for rebels and thus perfect for Mad Jack. Why the think is called Baby, I can’t remember. It might be a Depeche Mode song that influence it, the lyrics being “Precious, like a baby in my arms”... isn’t that the way Mad Jack carries his Baby?

Princess Leila

The princess is a bit of a sad person. She is married to the King, but not allowed to be called queen (The Queen is someone else). She is a princess of a country that hardly exists. Unlike other women in the story, she doesn’t have a proper job.
In her loneliness in the bunker, she became hooked to heroin, and she is looking for affection whenever she can.
She is in fact much to classy to walk the mud of Holland. She has beautiful blond hair, and dresses in the finest clothes she can get.

Leila is one of the wives of (future) kings that just can’t handle the golden cage of royalty. This has destroyed her whole life. The name “Leila” was a bit of luck for me, I was writing on the story and needed a name for the Kings wife when I read in the newspaper one of the princesses of Holland had gotten the code name Leila in a police dossier. It might have been a link to Princess Leia of Star Wars fame. But in the story it might also be taken as an exotic name, indicating the princess is born in immigrant circles.

Mad Jack