Prominent Utrechters talking about their favourite spot in the city. This month: writer, columnist, sports journalist and podcast maker Frank Heinen tells us about Wolvenplein. So… Wolvenplein? ‘Last summer, I started renting an office-cum-cell overlooking the exercise yard in this former prison. It’s a very special building with a unique history, and one where very little has been altered. I love being here, partly because it means that I can hide away for a couple of days a week to concentrate on projects without pressing deadlines. I’m finishing my new book, for example, which is due to be published in June. It’s a compilation of five travel stories, based on the cycling trips that my girlfriend and I went on in Europe and China. It’s partly fictionalised, but there’s a lot of humour too. I’m pleased with it, I think the mix works well.’ Guilty pleasure? ‘My girlfriend and I like to wander through ordinary streets in the suburbs with our one-year-old daughter – secretly looking into people’s houses. I’d hate it myself, but I like to see how other people deal with day-to-day life. You’ll see a living room with a nice bookcase, for example, where people are having breakfast. Or you see them tinkering with the car close to their house on a Sunday morning, or fishing or rowing. It’s comforting to see how other people enjoy life in their own way. In the city centre, where I live, a lot of people look like me and come from similar backgrounds. These walks show me that luckily, most people aren’t like me.’ Best memory? ‘When I was studying general literature in Utrecht, I used to meet my friends in a bar called De Flitz, behind Bijenkorf, where the more successful Stathe is now. De Flitz used to be really popular, but by that time (15 years ago) people had largely stopped going there. It was so quiet that it felt like a personal haven for us to escape to. I’m not a particularly good dancer, but I could really let go there, without embarrassing myself. I still miss having such a quiet place in the middle of town, where you can just be yourself without being watched.’ (text continues below the image) Favourite restaurant? ‘Now we’ve got a child, I don’t go to Marktzicht on Breedstraat much anymore. But before the pandemic, I used to go and work there a few days every week, sitting at a table in the window with my headphones on. I became part of the furniture and they let me sit there while they cleared up around me. I still love it. It’s a real old-fashioned bar: nothing trendy about it. It seems to attract all sorts of people, even blah-blah society types from the university. There’s always something to keep you amused.’ Most recently seen or heard? ‘I had to cancel a number of concerts in TivoliVredenburg because of a lingering cough, so I’m going to say the book Out of Sheer Rage by the English author Geoff Dyer. It’s incredibly funny. He wanted to write a biography of the author D.H. Lawerence, but kept putting it off. Some of the slapstick situations made me laugh out loud. I think humour is an underestimated talent, and I’m trying to let it seep into my latest book. In fact even my last book Grijs, which partly features the birth of my daughter and the death of a family member, is very witty despite the serious nature of the subject matter.’ Inspirational Utrechter? ‘My father, who’s a linguist like me. He’s read much, much more than I have and he once recommended the author C.C.S. Crone, a classical writer who died some time ago and left a modest oeuvre. But his stories in De schuiftrompet (1947), which are set in around Utrecht, manage to convey a moving portrayal of the city. He paints a dreamy picture of Utrecht, which is still recognisable today. I’d thoroughly recommend it to anyone.’