Thomas Schröder is a journalist, editor, translator and proofreader and likes to speak of himself in the third person when writing ‘About the author’ pages. He likes to travel, take photographs and discover new places, be it countries, cities, cafés, restaurants or the drawers of closets he hadn’t opened for years.

He once won the certificate of honour – Ehrenurkunde – at Bundesjugendspiele (annual sport event for children and youths at German schools) with exactly 1.700 points (being the exact number of points to achieve said certificate). However, he only holds the Seahorse badge for swimming (jumping heroically from the edge of the swimming pool, then 25 meters of swimming, and diving for some object in the water catching it with his hands from shoulder-deep water).

He likes apple cake with entire pieces of apple in or on it. And is currently annoyed that AutoCorrect wrote apple with capital A. Twice! And even after having it corrected the first time.

When he was a child he hid behind the sofa to cry when Winnetou was dying on Television.

When taking pictures he likes the unusual angle and graphic motifs. He believes the art of photography lies within the act of taking the picture and not in modifying it later – except smoothing over his own wrinkles and dimples when he is on the foto. But then, usually, he didn’t take the picture himself, so technically, he’s not breaking his rule. And if it’s a selfie, which he ordinarily doesn’t do, then he is really tortured by his bad conscience. But anyway, who cares about principles anymore.