I was born in 1963 in Amsterdam. I spent most of my youth in Eindhoven, in the south of the Netherlands where I still live. After studying organizational psychology, I worked for several years in various managerial positions in the corporate world. After that I had my own consultancy agency and I was active in municipal politics as a councilor.
My fascination with history, started in high school by a fantastic history teacher. Yet I did not choose to study history, but it remained a hobby. Reading books on all kinds of historical topics from the Tudors to World War II and back. Reading biographies that intertwine people’s personal lives with the historical context of the time they lived has always interested me.
When I inherited a correspondence between my grandparents in 2007, I finally converted it into a first publication. Working on that book made me delve deeper into my own family history. In contact with the still living van Benthem Juttingen it quickly became clear to me that Tera’s life was a special one, which eventually led to this site.
Besides writing I like to cook, together with my husband. I give cooking workshops especially the Dutch Rice table (based on the Dutch east Indies cooking) and organize so called salons in my home. Meetings where people meet, and can enjoy cabaret, music or lectures. Under the motto: “for education and entertainment”.
Read more from Barbara van Benthem Jutting
Twee levens, een liefde
Barbara van Benthem Jutting previously wrote a book: Twee levens , een Lliefde. This is a double biography. Chris van Benthem Jutting and Dirkje de Boer met each other in 1926, when Chris was already 48. He was a captain on the high seas to the Indies. She is younger than him, but has also been through a lot. They are starting to write to each other. In this book, the reader is first allowed to look inside the bourgeois culture of the Netherlands at the beginning of the twentieth century. After that he is allowed to go on steamships to the Indies. He then watches their love and marriage. All in the historical context of the interwar period in which their lives took place. Unfortunately not available in English.