Poles Apart

"You're lucky, being a girl. You can always get au pair work or a job in a Polish bakery. Apparently they're springing up all over the country."

Marta grits her teeth and nods. She is used to the assumption that she moved to England to change nappies and mop floors. It couldn't be further from the truth. As a graduate of one of Poland's top universities, Marta has ambitious plans for her new life. But things don't work out as the young migrant had planned. Her qualifications are unpronounceable, let alone recognizable, and her new friends seem more interested in spending their cash than helping Marta make hers.

As yet another door slams shut in her face, Marta finds herself alone in the English rain with a broken suitcase, no money and nowhere to go - and the phone number of a young woman she barely knows.

Based on a true story, Poles Apart is the moving and funny account of one young migrant's search for recognition in a foreign land - and everything that happens along the way.

©2008 Polly Courtney (P)2014 Polly Courtney