Mistakes by the ‘Cultural Queen’
Geplaatst op 10-10-2008.
The most beautiful clumsy English was used by the late ‘Cultural Queen’ of the Netherlands : Annie M.G. Schmidt, a famous writer of childrens literature.
On page 383 of the biography Anna written by Annejet van der Zijl, Annie tells about some communication problems she had with a journalist from York.
“… I wanted to add : ‘My books are spread all over the world’ But I said ‘My books are destroyed all over the world’ [...] And this guy said: ‘Why, why was this?’
I kept on blundering. This guy asked – in a rather condescending tone : ‘What would you know about Andersen?’ And then I wanted to say: I was raised with H.C. Andersen, but I said ‘I’m fed up with H.C.Andersen’. Horrible. The situation got worse and worse.