Orientation

A short orientation in my site:

History: I write a series of history books for school children, called “Children in Denmark´s History”. Number eleven was published in 2016. The books are published by Alinea, Copenhagen. Every book tells the story of real danish children. They tell the reader about their dailyday life in a special key year, fx 971, 1397, 1534, 1592, 1658, 1872, 1914, 1944, 1971. Through the eyes of the children we discover danish history.

I was teaching history in elementray school for many years until I started studying history at the University of Southern Denmark. I am now a board member at the Funen Historical Society and I write articles on several subjects, specializing in Children´s history.

Story-telling: I am an active story-teller and also an active story-collector. I tell stories in many different places, like schools, libraries, churches and cultural centers. I have a big repertoire, from viking stories and myths to stories from the Middle Eastern countries.

2 Hours per Week: I am chairman and founder of the organisation 2 Hours per Week. Bilingual children between 3 and 8 years of age are matched with a grown-up danish volunteer. The two of them meet once a week for two hours where they play and read books together. In this way the child learns to express itself in the danish language and it gets to know danish culture and traditions – in a playful way.

The Story-Bazaar: About 15 years ago I started getting interested in stories from our immigrant countries. I started collecting them, spending time with immigrants in Denmark, studying the litterature and travelling in the Middle East, spending time in countries like Palestine and Syria.

I have published the stories in four books in a series called The Story-Bazaar: Stories and History from Turkey, Stories and History from Bosnia & Hercegovina, Stories and History from five arabian countries: Irak, Jordan, Libanon, Palestine and Syria – and Stories and History from Iran. Between the stories and myths you can read historical facts about the time, the place and the background for the stories. The books are published by the publishing company Ravnerockforlaget.

Paintings: I love painting. My paintings and my research for the books I publish are often mixed, so right now I am painting angels because of the title of the newest book in The Story-Bazaar: “An Angel on both Shoulders”. The pictures are exibited at the gallery Solvognen in Odense.