Programme maker and writer John Jansen van Galen
Radio presenter John Jansen van Galen has become a symbolic forerunner of the Walk of Walk of Wisdom.
John Jansen van Galen studied political and social sciences in the 1960s and then became a journalist and later editor-in-chief at HP/De Tijd. For many years he was active for the VPRO radio, where he made reports about Suriname, among other things. He also wrote several books on politics and Dutch colonial history and our national politics. He wrote many columns for Het Parool, NRC Handelsblad , among others, and as a chronicler of walks for the Vereniging Natuurmonumenten, among others.
For almost 25 years, John Jansen van Galen has been the regular presenter of the much-listened to radio program Met het oog op morgen on Sunday evenings. And just as long, he closes the program with the reading of a poem. Often, the reason for his choice is the weather or a walk. It is almost logical that John Jansen van Galen also writes about this: he also compiled an anthology of poetry (Met Het Oog Op Morgen | Poetry anthology, 2008) and has written several books about walking (Walks: The Netherlands in Four Seasons, 1997; Walking around Amsterdam, 2002; Walking on the Wadden, 2003).
His most recent walking book is entitled ‘Where there’s a will, there’s no road – getting lost in the Netherlands’ (April 2014). Is it possible to get lost in a country where the whole of life is insured and mapped out? Can you still feel completely free, untethered and left to yourself? Yes, as long as you do your best! John Jansen van Galen explores the possibilities in this book.
And that, of course, ties in very nicely with the principles of the Walk of Wisdom. It’s great that we can welcome John Jansen van Galen as a forerunner!
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