Personal Blogs

Dr Zbigniew A Pelczynski 1958 ti 1988 to 2018. Catch him on the radio on Saturday. Polish born he was 14 when Germany invaded Poland, 19 when he took part in the Warsaw Uprising and survived only to be put in a concentration camp. Some story, finally relieved in 1944 he joins the British Army. A visit to Oxford in 1946 and he falls in love. Learns English in Gateshead, gets a scholarship to St Andrews, then turns up in Oxford for his MA and PhD and then he picks up tutoring jobs until he finds tenure at Pembroke College where he tutors Philosophy and East European History. 

There's much more besides: he set up scholarships to brings Polish students out of communist Poland and when communism fell he was invited to advice the government on how to set up a civil service and he went on to set up The School for Leaders.

Has he retired? He is blind. He is almost confined to his home. Always an early adopter he has had a Mac for ever, then an iBook for reading very large text books and over the last two years Alexa is his savour for reading books, finding radio stations and even calling his family - whether they are elsewhere in the house or 100 miles away.

He's my father in law.