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Before I introduce today’s guest, a quick bit of housekeeping.

I’m delighted to say I’ve written a book. Or more specifically, published a collection of stories written for Brussels Beer City and Belgian Beer and Food Magazine, brought together for the first time under the title Brussels Beer City: Stories from Brussels Brewing Past. 

It’s a collection that, for the first time in english, charts the rise and fall of Brussels as a brewing capital of Europe, and the people and families that were there to see it. 

More excitingly I’ve teamed up with Brussels Beer Project for the book launch, brewing a very special beer to mark the occasion. 

Both book and beer will be launched at the BBP brewery on October 7, with details to come on registration, etc. in the meantime, you can find out more about the book, and pre-order your e-book copy, at beercity.brussels/book.

And with that, let’s get onto our guest.

Frederik Willem Daem is a Brussels native, born and raised in Jette. Daem is a writer, novelist and musician. His first collection of short stories was published in 2015 and was awarded the Debuutprijs 2016. 

His debut novel, Tekens van Leven, followed in 2020, and has since been shortlisted for De Bronzen Uil, the annual award for the best Dutch-language debut. 

In the summer lull between Covid restrictions, I joined Frederik at one of his regular central Brussels haunts, where we talk the benefits of the anonymous city, the iconography that make up the archetypal city café and how one became a central character in his debut novel, the Brussels café regulars that populate the book, the peculiarities of Brussels, and how they protect it from metropolitan homogenisation, and building a real-life café from his imagination for the launch of his book.

Enjoy the episode.