It takes place between 1997-1999, when Poland was emerging from a shadow of more than forty years under Communism into the glaring light of Democracy and Capitalism. This rebirth, which created great tension between tradition and change, revealed what it is to be Polish – and is captured in Polska Dotty.
Employing themed chapters (“Customer Service”, “Work and Entrepreneurs”, “The Polish Character”), but cleverly maintaining a chronological narrative, it mixes hilarious anecdote with serious research into the culture to provide a unique insight into the Polish condition.
This book will appeal to the traveller, expatriates living in Poland, Poles in Poland as well as in the huge Polish Diaspora, or indeed anyone interested in learning about other cultures.
No longer will Brits need to ask what makes their Polish plumber or cleaner or waitress over here tick, or misunderstand the locals when visiting Poland during the 2012 European Football Championships, and beyond!
Illustrated with quirky and evocative drawings by talented Polish artist Wieslaw Kisielowski.
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Website: http://polskadotty.wordpress.com/
To purchase: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005YAEHK0
Information about the author
Jonathan Lipman was born in Oxfordshire, England in 1968. In the 1980s he encountered many temporary émigrés from Eastern Europe – including Russians, Romanians and… Poles – visitors to his father’s team that pioneered wind energy in the UK. Conversations with them ranged from the flaws in Capitalism to the evils of Communism, from the corrupt West to the post-Communist “Wild East”, from Keynes to Marx and Engels. This stood Jonathan in good stead when, at the age of 25, he met a variety of East Europeans on a course at Oxford University, and fell in love with one of them – Marzena, a Pole. They married in Krakow, Poland in 1997, and after two years there, returned to England where Jonathan could continue his career in English law. He is now UK Legal Director of a large motor manufacturer, moonlighting as an author, or maybe the other way around. Marzena and he live in Buckinghamshire, England, where they are slaves to two girls, three fish, and various generations of ipod.