Johanna Kinney was born in 1925 in Java, Indonesia, in what was then a Dutch colony. In 1930 her family returned to live in the Netherlands. During wartime both she and her brother Evert were involved in the Underground, her brother subsequently knighted for distinguished service and bravery. Her own lived experience and those of her associates during wartime inspired Dutch Defense.
Je Maintiendrai (French, roughly “I will keep up”) is both the motto of the Dutch monarchy and the slogan of Evert’s Resistance cell, which ultimately had only two survivors.

After the war, Johanna married and had two children in Belgium. Her Dutch husband died; she eventually remarried, this time wedding a Canadian officer she’d met 15 years earlier during the time of liberation. Though widowed a second time only 15 years later, she remained persistent: returning to a full-time career at age 50; providing for her five sons while earning degrees in psychology and education; becoming an accomplished educator; and ultimately designing a program for, and instructing, gifted students. She remained an educator into her late sixties.
After retiring in 1993, she wrote the first complete version of this book, both at her house in Montreal and largely while she was caring for a new grandchild in Boston. Today she lives in Ottawa, Canada.