Audrey Hepburn, Bohdan Smoleñ, or maybe Jerzy Vetulani? We selected interesting – and new – biographies

Ryszard Kozik: Do you like reading biographies? I do, but I rarely use them lately. A few interesting ones have just appeared. “Audrey Hepburn. Warrior“Robert Matzen (Albatros) is a portrait not so much of a movie star, but above all of a beautiful, talented and sensitive woman. The author introduces us to the last, very active years of Audrey’s life, telling, among other things, her great involvement in the activities undertaken by UNICEF.

“Holland. Biography all over again“Karolina Pasternak (Znak) is a story about a woman who has achieved enormous success, the greatest in the herstory of Polish film. And here, for the first time, she talks so openly about her life. How was it? Working and creating in such a male environment? childhood after the tragic death of her father? How did she find herself in Paris as a single mother of a refugee? How did she come to Hollywood?

Marta Korycka: My attention was recently drawn to the biography of Bohdan Smoleń written by Katarzyna Olkowicz. “And there, be quiet! Bohdan Smoleń’s biography“, as the publisher (Rebis) announces, is a biography of a man who raises a lot of controversy, from delight to regret and bitterness. A man who could be good, but also unpleasant for people important to him. I remember Smoleń mainly from the repetitions of the Tey cabaret skits – I loved them – and “Mr. Kleksa w kosmosie”. I also knew that he was very involved in helping children through hippotherapy in the Foundation of the Creation of Mr. Smoleń. I did not realize, however, that there was also so much sadness and shadow in his life.

Similarly to Janusz Onyszkiewicz – for me, first of all, politics. Thanks to the book published by Agora “Onyszkiewicz. There have been happy returns“, which is the hero’s conversation with Włodzimierz Nowak and Violetta Szostak, I found out about his mountain adventures. He explored caves and climbed in the Himalayas, he met both wives through the mountains, lost one of them in the mountains …

Richard: Gilles Van Grasdorff is a biographer friend of the 14th Dalai Lama. Tenzin Gyatso is over eighty years old, he is ill, and the problem of succession is becoming more and more pressing. Meanwhile, China, more than ever, is pressing against Tibet … “The Last Dalai Lama“ (Sonia Draga) is partly a historical chronicle, partly a pedagogical guide, and partly a colorful and dynamic saga.

Whereas “Vetulani. A beautiful mind, a wild heart“Katarzyna Kubisiowska (Znak) is a book that you must read. And because of her protagonist (an outstanding neurobiologist, co-creator of Piwnica pod Baranami, atheist, provocateur, supporter of the legalization of marijuana – one could long enumerate) and the author, a great journalist, interlocutor and writer (I love her Pilch biography).

Anna Kowal: I, too, have read a few books in recent weeks, which were partly biographical and were devoted to the fashion community. They are connected by the publisher – Arkady. Nicky Albrechtsen has created a real fashion encyclopedia. Reading “Vintage fashion“we learn the history of fashion, but we also see how much the current trends draw from the past. And all this is embellished with as many as 1,300 illustrations – clothes, patterns, accessories and photos of entire stylizations. how beautifully delivered!

I also recommend three (I hope only for now, because the original edition of the series consisted of eight volumes) charming mini-albums about the history of great fashion houses. The ones already released are “Louis Vitton“,”Chanel“and”Gucci“These are great gift books for people interested in fashion, full of photos of creations, styles, accessories and of course designers. The cool thing about them is that they are not written on one foot, and the authors approach each fashion house individually. I recommend it, and soon I will write more about these books – I have already made an appointment with Marta.

Richard: From the position of a guy who is interested in fashion at the level of sometimes flipping through the new issue of “Vogue”, I admit that all these books are very interesting, and Ania really got into reading them.

And to our set I would like to add one more Arkad publishing house, which reached us just before the World Art Day: “The Malczewski clan“Paulina Szymalak-Bugajska and Magdalena Ewa Nosowska. The authors work at the Jacek Malczewski Museum in Radom, so you can probably write that they are almost like you with the Malczewskis. I write, they created” a story about a father and son, Jacek and Rafał – two great talents, two strong personalities showing similar weaknesses: unmanageable tendencies to devastating romances and loneliness. We recommend and by the way invite you to the Main Building of the National Museum in Krakow for the exhibition “Romantic Malczewski.” We would like to remind you that this year there are 200. anniversary of the first edition of Adam Mickiewicz’s Ballades and Romance, considered a manifesto of Polish Romanticism. 2022 was also proclaimed the Year of Polish Romanticism.

Marta: And if someone prefers the adrenaline caused by danger to romance, he can turn to the book “Spy. How a drug dealer became an agent in North Korea“(Capital Letter). Jim Latrache-Qvortrup was a paratrooper in the Foreign Legion, a cocaine dealer among the Copenhagen elite and served eight years for drug offenses. After his release, he studied psychology at the University of Copenhagen, and today is a businessman, and in 2020 he played in the role of Mr. James in the secret documentary by Mads Brügger “The Mole in Korea.” Here, I will use the opinion of the writer Wojciech Chmiel, who suggests on Instagram that this biography should be treated as an adventurous novel with a charming main character.