Ton van der Lee facts for kids

Ton van der Lee (born 1956, Bussum) is a Dutch author and documentary film maker. He directed and/or produced more than 20 feature-length documentaries which were broadcast in many countries and won several prizes. He became famous internationally with his bestselling book Solitaire, an autobiographical novel describing his life in the tiny desert settlement Solitaire in Namibia. He settled there in 1996, becoming the third inhabitant when he joined Percy Cross (better known as Moose) and his brother in law. Ton van der Lee left Solitaire in late 1999 to travel onwards into Africa. He published seven books about Africa, three historical novels en two biographies and made several television documentaries about the Africa, including the prize winning film Holy Mud about traditional adobe architecture in the Niger valley in Mali, and the series Spirits of Africa about African shamans. His latest film (2019) is Lembro Me (I remember) about Portugal before the 1974 revolution.

Van der Lee is the son of Antonij van der Lee (1923–2000), professor in German linguistics, and Maria Louise Kieviet (1923–2015), granddaughter of Cornelis Johannes Kieviet, who was the author of the Dik Trom series of children's books. At the request of the publisher and the town where the original Dik Trom books were written, van der Lee has written three modern Dik Trom sequels.