The later years
Up to Maria’s death in 2007, Andrew was involved in research and co-writing a number of titles for The History Press including Jane Austen’s Christmas & Wartime Christmas both of which he revised for their republication in 2023.
With the encouragement of his family, he has revisited writing and occasional broadcasting, with his latest title, based upon his father’s experiences: Gulag to Spitfire due to be published by the History Press in 2024.
The Early Years
Born in 1947 to a Polish ex Spitfire pilot who’d escaped from the notorious Vorkuta Gulag, and an English mother who’d worked at Bletchley Park in 1944; Andrew grew up in and around Brighton after a spell as a toddler living in a Nissen hut at the former RAF base Holmsley in the New Forest.
His initial career was in the Met Office and Air Traffic Control with a spell as an aviation journalist.
He met his late wife Maria on the Scottish ski slopes as her ski instructor. They later developed The Christmas Archives which specialised in documenting the history of Christmas celebrations internationally, providing exhibitions in Europe and Canada along with a great deal of film, TV, radio, glossy magazine and photography work.
They sold the archive to a Japanese company and assisted in setting up a permanent exhibition in Hokkaido, maintaining a long and fruitful relationship with the Japanese that endured for many years.
My Story
"A walking encyclopaedia…"
Today
Andrew is a keen skier (downhill and cross country) sailor, sea and fly fishing angler. He is a keen cook as well as a published writer and enthusiastic grandparent. Despite speaking four languages, with
many more among his family he doesn’t speak Polish. He encourages his whole family to embrace the many food customs such as Wigilia. As Andrew’s youngest son always says: The culture is in the food! By that token even his Jamaican wife regards herself as an honorary Pole!’
