The Winged Watchman

Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1908, Hilda van Stockum was an author and illustrator of children’s books. Because her father was in the Royal Dutch Navy, she lived in the East Indies, Holland, and eventually Ireland, where she studied art. Known for her realistic depictions of family life, van Stockum often used her own experiences as fodder for her writing. The Winged Watchman reflects her knowledge of the Netherlands and also draws upon her Catholic upbringing and the stories from her relatives who lived through the Germans’ occupation of the Netherlands. 

Van Stockum’s study of art also profoundly influenced her writing. While in Dublin, she studied the effects of light on a subject, and this artistic awareness infuses her descriptions of Joris’s nighttime expeditions, as when the narrative states, “The moonlight threw dark shadows, and in its pale shimmer even familiar objects looked weird and a little frightening” (51). In passages such as these, van Stockum uses the interplay of darkness and light in the physical landscape to engage with the more abstract idea that the figuratively “dark” times of the Nazi occupation also transformed people’s perceptions. Because she describes how the citizens learned to live with less and unconditionally supported their neighbors, The Winged Watchman is widely praised for its accurate portrayal of Dutch life during this difficult historical time frame.