Polska Dotty 2: Polski Sklep, Polish Plumbers, and Other Tales of Poles in the UK

ABOUT THE BOOK

On 1 May 2004, Poland joined the EU. The UK government at the time predicted this would make for an influx of c13,000 additional immigrants per year. A decade or so on, there are reckoned to be around one million Poles living in the UK.

Why did so many Poles come to the UK? And how have they settled here? What impact have they made on our way of life? What do THEY think of OUR way of life?

Do they love our carpeted bathrooms and strangely separate hot and cold taps? Do they yet understand why we have to change into our swimwear at the merest hint of sunshine? What do we think of their ubiquitous (and cheap) plumbers, and “Polski Sklep” (Polish shops)?

Find out in Polska Dotty 2! In this hilarious follow-up to Polska Dotty, Jonathan and his Polish wife Marzena return to the UK from their two year sojourn in Poland to encounter more Poles: plumbers, builders, handymen, hairdressers, cleaners – and a whole host of others.

It’s a rollercoaster ride as they engage Polish plumbers on various work, and eventually a Polish builder to carry out a major extension to their home. All is well which ends well, but not without the joy and pain along the way of multiple leaky pipes, half-in half-out fireplaces, and world-record breaking light switches – all facilitated by a world within a world of Polish suppliers and itinerant workers operating in the UK.

Laced with references to the key press coverage on Poles in the UK during the last decade, and with a contribution from Marzena's inimitable All-Girl Polish Book Club – this is an incisive, comical and ultimately myth-busting account of the recent great wave of Poles into the UK.