THE POLISH CONNECTION

I've just heard that a Polish publisher, AMBER, have come in for the Demi-Monde. I've checked them out and they seem an excellent publisher with a very strong portfolio so I'm really quite chuffed. Apparently 'The Demi-Monde' is going to be their 'lead book' in the month it's launched.

I suppose it did help that quite a chunk of the book's action was set in the Warsaw part of the Demi-Monde and that one of the principal characters - Wysochi - is a very formidible Pole, but still...I'm pleased.

The Rees family has got quite a strong link with Poland. Nell's mother was born near Bialystok (like the guy in 'The Producers') in Poland but because of the turmoil caused by WWII she found herself in the Ukraine and thence to Russia. It's a very harrowing story: I'm hoping one of my daughters might one day turn it into a book.

My daughters used to play a game when they were younger where they'd try to work out just what nationality they really were. I'm half Scottish and half Welsh (though apparently there's a dash of Irish in there too) while Nell's half Polish and half Russian, so the girls are a real hodge-podge. It was always funny at their previous school when they used to bang-on about trying to make the girls 'internationalist in outlook' - they're got 'internationalism' in their blood.