The Last Lancer: A story of loss and survival in Poland and Ukraine

(Paperback)

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An intimate story of a Polish family torn apart by war: of heartbreak, loss, and survivalagainst the odds.

Julian Czerkawski was born in 1926 near Lwow, in Polish Galicia, on a farm with fertile grainfields and orchards. He was the son of a Polish lancerone of the famous cavalrymen whocarried forward the legacy of the hussar knights.

But there would be no idyllic childhood for young Julian. Soviet annexation and then, in1941, the German occupation of Lwow changed everything. At the age of 18, he was sent toa labour camp. Fortunate to escape after the war with his life, eventually he made his wayto the UK, where he married and started a family. But an ache remained for the people andplaces of his childhood memories, even if he spoke of them only rarely.

In 2022, Putins war in Ukraine and the sight of refugees passing through Lvivthe formerPolish city of Lwowadded urgency to his writer daughter Catherines project of a lifetime,to try to uncover for herself everything that had been lost a generation before.

The Last Lancer offering a deep and very personal understanding of a troubled place.

Reviews

'Poignant and powerful. One family's history comes into sharp focus against the tragic events of the present.' -- Olga Wojtas

Author Bio

Catherine Czerkawska is a critically acclaimed writer of long and short fiction, non-fiction and plays.Her novels includeThe Curiosity Cabinet,The Physic Garden, Bird of PassageandThe Jewel, about the life of Robert Burnss wife, Jean Armour. In 2019 Contraband publishedA Proper Person to be Detained,an intriguing exploration of family history that takes us from 19th-century Ireland to the industrial heartlands of England and Scotland. Following on from this,The Last Lanceris a personal account of loss and survival in Poland and Ukraine, a book with a tragic resonance, given the current situation in that country. Catherine's stage plays includeWormwood, about the Chernobyl disaster, andQuartz, both commissioned by Edinburghs Traverse Theatre.She has also written more than 100 hours of drama for BBC Radio 4. She spent four years as Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at the University of the West of Scotland and when not writing, collects and deals in the antique textiles that occasionally find their way into her fiction.