I can’t remember the last time I put pen to paper, metaphorically anyway, but I promise you I have written many blog posts in my head in the last few months. I have plenty to write about of my own accord, and other people, including family members, have asked me to write about specific things. […]Read Post ›
Happy birthday, Ciocia. Today you would have been 89. Aged about 2, in Lwów. Today’s date will stick in many Londoners minds, because of the London bombings 20 years ago. I remember the day well because I had taken some children on a school trip, and we were supposed to come back to school by […]Read Post ›
I don’t know who took this photo, but it is one of my favourite ones of my father. He stayed in Italy after the war, and started attending Rome University , but soon realised that there would be more opportunities in England for Poles like him, who had been deported to Siberia, then managed to […]Read Post ›
from KM What do you remember about your very first day in the classroom? My first proper teaching job, with a proper contract was in Esher College. I’ve written fairly recently about my interview there, and how surprised I was to get the job. But that hurdle over, my Head of Department, Helena Fotherby, then […]Read Post ›
I love Mother’s Day, always have done, ever since I was a child and taken to buy flowers for my mother. My stepfather would take me to Alice’s Flowers in South Kensington Arcade and we would usually buy a tiny bunch of violets or perhaps mimosa. I don’t remember seeing either of those in florists’ nowadays. My […]Read Post ›
What is this ugly thing? You may well ask; I had to ask myself the same thing when I found it last week. But then I saw Mrs Washington’s handwriting, and it all came back to me. Mrs W, from Marlborough School, my teacher for the whole four years, was very ken=en on handicrafts. She […]Read Post ›
St Augustine’s Priory. Form III. The first year of senior school. It would be year 7 these days. I had just arrived, and was settling in to the boarding system, just about, but the classroom was another kettle of fish. Luckily I didn’t find any of the work at all difficult (apart form PE and […]Read Post ›
The attic yielded many finds last week. This was one of the best. I really wanted to find this article two years ago, for the 70th jubilee of the coronation (Queen Elizabeth’s, of course), as I was born in 1953. My father must have bought these reins that year, ready for me when I eventually […]Read Post ›
Two almost identical Bears.one is about 25 years older than the other, I believe, but both have a very special place in my heart. For many years the younger one and I were inseparable. Everywhere I went, Miś came too. Especially at night time, of course. When I was very small, my father was still […]Read Post ›
Alice is about 20 in this picture. My mum is 27 so I must be about 3 1955 or 6. Holland Park. I would be lying if I said I actually remember this picture being taken, but I am almost sure my father took it. There is a whole series of them somewhere. But as […]Read Post ›
Life Through Basia's Eyes 