THE SCOTTISH FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN WRITERS

Biographies

by Irene Howat

From whitewashed stairs to heaven (Maureen McKenna)

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My beloved Russia (Dimitry Mustafin)

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In strength not our own (Georgie Orme)

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An irregular candidate (Jackie Ross)

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A housewife’s adventure with God (Jessie McFarlane)

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Miracles from Mayhem (May Nicolson and Preshal book 1)

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More Miracles from Mayhem (May Nicholson and Preshal book 2)

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Renewing broken lives (May Nicholson and Preshal book 3)

From Corsets to Communism

Jenny Robertson

‘I had only one eye, I was hungry and cold, yet I wanted to live… so that I could tell it all just as I’ve told you.’ - From Zofia Nalkowska’s Medallions (1947).

Witness to two world wars and Poland’s struggle for independence, Zofia Nalkowska’s commitment to recording all is her gift to European literature. Her own story of love affairs, family loyalty and survival is remarkable in itself. Yet, her determination to record others’ truth, however painful, ties her fate to a nation whose battle for identity is both brutal and romantic. Her most renowned work, Medallions, a collection of short stories, exposes and restores dignity to people reduced, through Nazi occupation, to burnt out ghettos and guillotined heads heaped ‘like potatoes’. In contrast, as a keen and visionary observer of beauty, Nalkowska is innovative in exploring motherhood’s psychological imprint and the blurred boundaries of male and female relationships. Drawing on her own background as a poet and Polish Studies graduate, Jenny’s Robertson’s literary biography celebrates the achievements of a pioneering writer whose love of life not only propelled her to fame, but gave her the courage to witness atrocity. In doing so, Nalkowska’s life and writing reflect and inform Europe's cultural heritage.

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