[2] Both novels were written on loose sheets of used paper and toilet rolls due to the lack of proper notebooks.

[citation needed] Dragt afterwards did most of her writing at night time while working as a drawing teacher at primary schools during the day.

She had problems with controlling her classroom as a teacher, as classes were often filled with forty to fifty children due to the babyboom.

[1] This experience would lead to the inspiration for Frans van der Steg, the protagonist in her novel De zevensprong.

She continued to produce at a high rhythm during the 1960s, but massively reduced the output of new work in the next decades, although collections of older short stories filled up many of the gaps.

[8] Throughout the decade, the work of Tonke Dragt was translated into many languages, including German, Afrikaans, Czech, Spanish, Danish and Indonesian.

[citation needed] Many of the books and stories by Tonke Dragt are situated in a fantasy or science fiction environment, although usually closely related to or intertwined with the real world.

In the 1960s, Dragt, alongside Thea Beckman started pioneering children's literature with their thick books involving protagonists in historical fantasy and science fiction settings.

[10] In a 2019 interview, Dragt therefore recalled her first call with Miep Diekmann, who worked as an editor at Leopold at the time and was not entirely convinced by the first Verhalen van de tweelingbroers manuscript, stating that fables were out of fashion.

[10] In Verhalen van de tweelingbroers, the main setting of the story, the city Bainoe, strongly resembles Batavia in illustrations, while the illustrated characters in the story wear Italian Renaissance fashion,[1] with the main characters Jiacomo and Laurenzo wearing a giornea and a cap.

[citation needed] The film based on the book, starring Derek de Lint was released in the summer of 2008.