Alfred van Cleef is an Amsterdam based Dutch journalist and writer. Since 1978 he has been working as a journalist and correspondent for major newspapers and magazines from Madagascar, South Korea, Ghana, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Greece and many other countries. He worked for several years as a reporter for the leading Dutch daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad.
As a writer, he made his debut with De verloren wereld van de familie Berberović (The Lost World of the Berberovic Family), about the fate of a family during the war in Bosnia-Hercegovina . Van Cleef had much success with his literary travelogue The lost Island, about his obsession for the tiny island of Amsterdam in the Indian Ocean, which was also published in the United States and Germany. Van Cleef’s next book was the novel Verlangen. In 2010 De verborgen ordening was published, a journey of exploration along the prime meridian.