Paulien Cornelisse dies at 50 after cancer battle

Dutch writer and comedian Paulien Cornelisse has died at the age of 50 following a battle with cancer. She passed away on Wednesday, September 30, at the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital in Amsterdam.

Cornelisse gained widespread recognition for her dryly humorous observations on language and everyday life. Her literary successes include the bestseller ‘Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding’, which sold approximately 700,000 copies, and the novel ‘De verwarde cavia’. Her career spanned columns for publications such as NRC and Volkskrant, as well as television appearances, including serving as a jury member on the program ‘De Slimste Mens’.

In a notable anecdote following her passing, it was highlighted that during the 2020 Gelders Erfgoed Festival, Cornelisse had hidden a golden cherry pit within the Regional Archive Rivierenland in Tiel. Despite extensive searches, the object remains undiscovered among fifteen kilometers of archival documents.