This was the title of the book that my father gave me to read which explained how he and his family, amongst many thousands of others, were “liberated” from their homes in February to April 1940, for being “enemies of the people”. The weeks before had seen the breadwinners being taken off and imprisoned and […]Read Post ›
Lili Stern-Pohlmann MBE 29 March 1930 – 15 September 2021 This is the last photo that Lili sent to me the Christmas before she died. Lili was a Holocaust survivor whose history is well documented. it is well worth clicking on this link: https://www.ajrrefugeevoices.org.uk/RefugeeVoices/Lili-Pohlmann She died suddenly last September and there is now a great […]Read Post ›
For M Today is St Barbara’s Day. My namesday, as we post-war Poles say, or nameday as it apparently should be said. I only found that out yesterday whilst out celebrating this chance occasion. In Poland the custom of celebrating your name on the day of the Saint in the catholic calendar is actually much […]Read Post ›
About 35 years ago I was teaching in a boys’ school in West London, which was an experience in itself. The school was very rundown and staffed mostly by supply teachers like me, with very few resources. I was working there because it was across the road from where I lived. I had two small […]Read Post ›
On Wednesday we went to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, with the intention of seeing this painting which had recently come to London with much fanfare within the Polish community. It is the first time it has been displayed in England and my photos do not do it justice in anyway. But I photographed […]Read Post ›
This semi-autobiographical short novel, from 1979,, is a fascinating expose of attitudes to life in an emerging post colonial Senegal. Written in the form of a letter from a recent widow to her friend who now lives in America, she looks back on her life as a teacher, mother of twelve, wife and widow of […]Read Post ›
Thank you KK This has been one of the most challenging books I have ever read – the subject matter is war – and normally I avoid this, because I want to relax, be entertained, and enjoy myself. This is quite hard to do when confronted with the horrors and passions and enormities of war. […]Read Post ›
This lovely picture is of my grandmother, Helena Łomnicka and my aunt, Alicja, taken after they were freed from Siberia and had recovered a little in Teheran before they were sent to the Lebanon in about 1944 or 5 Today is the 10th anniversary of my aunt’s death – I have written about her before […]Read Post ›
An ambition fulfilled. Today is the fourth anniversary of Sharon’s death. The last three years there was a lovely memorial mass said for her in Westminster Cathedral – her spiritual and dramatic home. Her funeral there was the biggest production she ever put on, and it was superb. I have written about it before I […]Read Post ›
This time in Chelsea Two weeks ago I started writing about my long and interesting walk in Chelsea, down the Kings Road, back to the stamping ground of my teenagerdom. I had a wonderful day, marred only for a while by the need to go to the loo. But that is the story for many […]Read Post ›
Life Through Basia's Eyes 