Some way back I have read several books in a German translation by a Dutch Author (female) and I really loved them.
Now I have been invited to go sailing along the Dutch Coast and I would like to visit the island where the place of action is.
She writes about relationships usually during the summer or autumn holiday usually in a rented holiday Cottage. They are very atmospheric and I woukd like to try and get them also in an English translation for our bookclub.
All I can remember is that her name starts with Van! Thank you.

There are literally HUNDREDS of names of Dutch authors which foreigners erroneously think begin with "van". In fact, the familyname of the writer ( be it his/her real one or a pseudonym) is the name following the word "van". That's the reason you will find their names in the telephone directory not under "V" but under the first letter of their real name.
Examples:
Annet van Battum (to be found in the directory under "B")
Nienke van Hichtum ( to be found in the directory under "H")

I don't know the writer you are looking for. Maybe you can help ny mentioning the name of the islanf where the action is tyaking place? Is it Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland or Schiermonnikoog?

Thank you Emilio, I am sure it is Vlieland! Yes it is difficult and there are so many Vans, I found out when I tried to google it but thank you for the explanation!

I have found the answer to my question trawling pages and pages of VANS on Amazon.de.
It's Vonne Van der Meer, "Inselgaeste", "Die letzte Faehre" usw.
But I can't believe it, she has not been translated into English, I just love her books and so I am very disappointed we can't read them in our English Bookclub.

Yes, it's "Le Bateau du Soir" in French. Apparently English speakers are not interested!
Btw, this Dutch writer is not bad at all. She's certainly better than the American writer Tracy Chevalier.

Thanks Emilio, I will try it in French, as I have read the German I will know the story line and it will b e a good excersise for my French. I agree with you about Tracy Chevalier. Do you know "Mills and Boon" novels. I always think she writes not much better than those authors and still is quite famous.

I agree. I even think a few of Harlequin's writers (your now centenary Mills and Boon!) display a better style than Tracy Chevalier! She became known for "The Girl with the Pearl Earring", a totally fictitious novel about a never existed maid of famous painter Johannes Vermeer from Delft. She made many Dutchmen angry by her "inventions". The same goes for the movie of the same name, in which canals of Venice are shown instead of the canals of Delft!!! (on short exception).
My biggest disappointment with her was reading "The Lady and the Unicorn", in connection with the marvelous set of late medieval Brussels tapestries in the Musée du Moyen Age (Maison Cluny) in Paris. Her research had been so poor ( non existent in fact) that she made Brussels a French speaking city while it was 100% Dutch speaking (= Flemish) at that time. She gave the weavers French names instead of Flemish ones, let them import their English wool from Ostend instead of from Antwerp and, last but not least, allowed soldiers of the French King to come to Brussels to fetch the tapestries! This would of course be totally impossible: imagine a foreign army entering another country without authorization of the local monarch! I could go on forever with all her serious mistakes, in particular the patronising of the Parisian painter towards the Brussels people which, at that time, was wealthier and more opulent than the Parisians.
The problem is that most people don't know anything about these subjects and so don't realise how crappy the work is!