Lia van Bekhoven | Living (and suffering) with the British

What do you wear when invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace, how have the British been faring since Brexit, and how do you get your stories as a correspondent? When Toen Lia van Bekhoven settled in London in the late seventies, you couldn't get filter coffee anywhere, and Prince Charles had yet to begin his first marriage. Since then, she has grown into ‘the voice from London’. For decades, van Bekhoven covered all the important and less important developments that took place in the Verenigd Koninkrijk. From peace negotiations in Northern Ireland and the rise of Harry Potter to the withdrawal from the EU and the death of Princess Diana. Especially the latter. Of all journalistic assignments, the demand for stories about the ups and downs of the royals has remained the most constant. Van Bekhoven never became an Anglophile, but she did become a Nederlandse Londense. She tells in an entertaining tone what kind of people the British are to live and work with — and yes, also what she wore to that famous garden party at Buckingham Palace.