Dot Wordsworth

Double dutch: the many meanings of ‘Holland’

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issue 31 July 2021

The title of the keenly awaited volume of memoirs by John Martin Robinson sounds like a crossword clue: Holland Blind Twilight. Would that be a Dutch kind of unseeing twilight or a drinking-session blind at twilight when Hollands gin is consumed?

Of course not! It’s plain enough. Blinds are often made of Holland, a linen fabric.

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