I recently read an interview with a writer who said that she far preferred fictional love stories to real life. The longer I live, the more I agree with that sentiment. I guess that’s why some people write, and some people read, and some people do both. And some people are really, really lucky, and [...]
I’ve been thinking lately, as we all do. But I’ve been thinking specifically about what makes a great book, as opposed to merely a mediocre book. I won’t bother conjecturing about what makes a bad book, even though lots of those get published as well and sometimes even acclaimed as bestsellers. In my opinion, the [...]
My father once wrote a poem for my mother, before they were married. Although he was Polish, he had an amazing command of the English language, rather like a Joseph Conrad or Vladimir Nabokov. So here are his words of love, sixty years on, in all their time-locked beauty. You asked me how I [...]
I’ve just come back home from a minor operation, and the memory of the surgeon’s knife cutting through flesh, sinews and bones has set my brain neurons hurtling all asunder. Of course I didn’t feel any pain during the actual operation itself, thanks to the sweet liberation of anesthesia. But the very mention of the [...]
When you see a bruised, battered face like the one I’ve reluctantly posted here, what immediately comes to mind? I can imagine what does for most people, because during the weeks that I braved the streets of Kraków while going about my daily life looking like a victim, I myself was at the receiving end [...]
I started writing this Blog in November 2017, just after my husband and I split up. How long will the pain last? I remember asking a friend who had been through a similar break-up. “Eighteen months,” was her answer. I remember sucking in my breath. At the time I could barely get through a single day without [...]
You’ve just come back from the holiday of a lifetime. Or maybe not even that. Maybe just a normal holiday, or some other uplifting event. And you’re back home. Plunged straight into real life. The pendulum has resumed its irritating, relentless swing. Back to work! it sneers at you while whooshing past, to and fro, carrying you [...]
