‘The guru and the baron’, was published in April 2026. Journalists and former news readers Rick Nieman (1965-) and Sacha de Boer (1967-) bought a summer house in an area that proved to be historically interesting. They started digging in the past and Nieman eventually presented this double biography of Philip van Pallandt (1889-1979) and Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986).
Van Pallandt gifted his large estate to the society that organised the “star camps” and that promoted the new ‘world leader’ Krishnamurti. The latter had been discovered by the Theosophists Annie Besant (1847-1933) and Charles Leadbeater (1854-1934) who consequentally tried to get him ready for his task. Krishnamurti was educated, lived a life of luxury and was dragged around the world to give lectures.
In the Netherlands the base of the organisation was formed on the former estate of the idealistic baron Van Pallandt who formed a very close friendship with Krishnamurti.
Nieman describes how things came about and how they developed. Krishnamurti’s doubt about his role, him becoming an independent thinker as he aged and in spite of clashes, Besant and Leadbeater kept supporting him. Nieman and De Boer had access to Van Pallandt family archives, so I was curious if any new information would have surfaced.
The book gives a very intimate story of the events around the two men, around the estate and in some way of the people surrounding them. I had some hope that Farwerck would appear in the book, but he does not. It is *very* unlikely that he was not familiar with Van Pallandt and the Star Camps that took place between 1924 to 1938. Who is in the book is Marijn Cochius (1874–1938) with whom Farwerck ran the glass factory.
So in the interest of this website, the book is only interesting in sketching a history in which Farwerck most likely had a part. Visits of Krishnamurti, Besant and Leadbeater to the Netherlands. What people were involved, etc.
The book is a nice read, but did not bring any new information about Farwerck.