My name is Dulce Rodrigues and I am the author of CHILDREN's BOOKS and also of the CHILDREN's website www.barry4kids.net in several languages.

I was born on a Spring day... many years ago in Lisbon, the lovely capital-city of a land of Navigators and of Poets. Though Portuguese in my heart and by nationality, I nevertheless adopted Europe as my "home", most probably because living abroad makes it easier for me to widespread the rich historical and cultural aspects of my country; because I'll then know better other people's culture and mentalities which, in turn, will open out my spiritual frontiers and influence my own life.

Language is the soul of a people, and the best way to understand other cultures is by learning their own languages and practising them whenever possible in their native country. I speak six living languages and I already lived in four different countries.

My deep thirst for knowledge led me to take two university courses: Science Foundation Course with the Open University, Brussels Dept, lab workshops at the University of Reading, in the UK, with a scholarship by NATO, Brussels, Belgium; and Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Lisbon, in Portugal.

But life also has its practical side, those materialistic aspects of our short passage on this earth which is far from being a paradise, and I realised early that I should follow a professional career. I therefore took some other courses of professional interest, and for about forty years I spanned my career between my home country and those foreign countries I adopted and that adopted me.

As anybody else, I had ups and downs in my life but perseverance and work helped me overcoming bad moments. I enjoy life and life has been good to me, rewarding me with grants for my studies in Germany and in the UK and with literary prizes in France.

Travelling is another of my hobbies and I'm a little like the wind - always on the move. I nevertheless enjoy staying comfortably at home, wherever I have one... which means in more than one country. Nature too offers me delightful moments of meditation, through its splendour and diversity, and I love every form of artistic expression as far as it transmits Beauty. This is why I'm filled with sadness sometimes when I think about the Arts legacy - if ever we can call it Art - passed on to us through the last decades of the XX into the XXI century.

I am a member of several associations and societies, either in Portugal or abroad.

I have two grownup sons. They are the best reward life could ever have given to me.