He has had three children: two sons, Daan Leonard (1965-2006) and Pepijn (1968), and a daughter Anne (1980).
He wrote for a military magazine entitled Salvo.
After quarreling with his CEO Julien Weverbergh Brouwers resigned from Manteau and devoted himself full-time to literature. After a period in Warnsveld, Netherlands, he moved to Exel (a village in the Dutch municipality of Lochem).
In 1991 he moved to a houseboat near Uitgeest, Netherlands. In 1993 he moved again, to Zutendaal, Belgium.
In 1964 he made his literary debut with Het mes op de keel (The Knife to the Throat).