One of the main ways a foreigner can get to know more about another culture is through literature. However, the difficulty in Poland with learning the language can mean that literature can usually take a back seat until more pressing issues such as job, friends and speaking the lingo get sorted. To simplify the literature [...]

Only one comic book has ever won a Pulitzer prize, that being Maus – A Survivor’s Tale. It won a Pulitzer Prize Special Award in 1992 for its author, Art Spiegelman. However, to call it a comic book does not do it service, as comic implies a level of humour involved. The term graphic novel [...]

For the past four weeks, Britian’s The Guardian newspaper has run a series it has called New Europe. It has spent one week each analysing Germany, France, Spain and finally in the past week, Poland. The introduction to the series says “Who are our neighbours? Too often Europe is discussed and reported through its common [...]

It was Christmas Eve and all through the house, nothing was stirring – because everyone had eaten too much barszcz, carp and cake during Wigilia dinner. When the time came to look under the Christmas tree for presents, little Decoy’s eyes lit up, as he saw what Santa Claus had brought. Mikołaj knew that Decoy [...]

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the show-down you have all been waiting for. The Christmas Cracker, the face-off between the Polish Christmas special, carp, and the Anglo-phonic favourite, turkey! In the blue corner. the pride of Poland, the carp. Weighing in at 18 pounds (8 kilos), he doesn’t pack a big punch, but is a [...]

The Wire is an American drama series that ran between 2002 and 2008, and it is one of my favourite TV shows. It was a programme aiming for absolute levels of realism as much as possible. It was a critic’s favourite, but many viewers were slow to catch on to the series, due to the [...]