You could earn Joseph Briels as an Antwerper in heart and soul. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood close to the port of Antwerp and enjoyed the stories his master Leopold Vermeiren, author of De Rode Ridder, told in the air-raid shelter during the war years.

In 1952 Briels followed in the footsteps of his great example and became a teacher himself. Because he found the stories in Dutch reading books too incomprehensible for his students, he started writing himself. Not much later, his works also appeared in our newspaper. Youth magazines such as Zonnekind, Zonnestraal and the children’s pages of Het Volkn are especially interested in beings.

In 1969 his debut youth novel Paco, the matador. In 1976 Briels received the John Flanders Prize for ayu bo wan saleem, the best Flemish movie. his book I hate the servant house was launched in 1991 with the Dr. Ferdinsnellaert Prize and the Prize of the Children’s and Youth Jury Flanders (1993).

For The Antimid (2001), a book that was different in the bronze prize of the Limburg Children’s and Youth Jury. Briels wrote the book based on a true story about drug use among teenagers.

In addition to his many children’s and youth books, Briels also wrote radio plays, columns and travel reports.

The farewell ceremony for Jozef Briels will take place on Tuesday, December 28, 2021 at 10.30 am in the Sint-Pauluskerk in Antwerp.