Landschaft is a wide ranging project encompassing music, photography, film-making and historical research, exploring themes of nostalgia. This page presents links to articles I have written and researched. The order may appear un-coordinated - the linkage is all mine and the themes are connected by atmosphere rather than theme. A work of art rather than logic.
An archive of press clippings painstakingly kept during the Great War. Transcribed here, a day a page, and a work in progress, pages will be posted as and when time permits.
Follow this link Chronicals of Lake Narocz by Mieczyslaw Lisiewicz to take you to the detail pages
Chronicals of Lake Narocz ("Kroniki Naroczanskie" in Polish) by Mieczyslaw Lisiewicz is a long out of print semi-autobiographical work by this Polish author. The book is reproduced here in full along with a commentary and context that I have researched and written. I have lovingly transcribed the work and present it here for all to read. Copyright remains the property of the owners whoever and wherever they are. This book was an early influence on the Landschaft project. I found it on a second hand shelf in the early 1990s and have cherished it ever since, reading and re-reading it, every time gaining deeper insight. I have tried to find out more about the book and the author. In July 2006, I recieved an email from Lisiewicz's daughter, the result of her internet research that found links to this website. She said her mother carried the manuscript of "Chronicals of Lake Narocz" from Poland through Russia and Palestine, South Africa and finally to England where the family was re-united three years after WWII and the book was eventually translated and published. Postscript: through this page, the daughter (Moyra Laing) of a friend (Judy Laing) of "Mickey and Olga Lisiewicz", would like to get in touch with the Lisiewicz's daughter Tereska. So, Tereska, if you read this page again, email me, and I will send you her address. There is a hope of reconnection for those lost among the currents of history!
In September 2007, I found an image of Narocz at the US Holocaust Memorial website, an image of some children plucking chickens outside a "tourist hut", the same huts in which Lisiewicz spent his summers tourist hut: USHMM image no 42658. There was a small Jewish community in the Narocz environs, in the villages Miadziol and Hatowicze, but Lisiewicz makes little mention of this in his book - the occasional references to religion are to the Othodox, and Catholic churches and the Muslim faith. There are frequent references to folk superstitions and Pagansome to Paganism. The Chronicals of Lake Narocz is long out of print, but my research continues to turn up new information leads - often buried deep, and I will add to these pages whatever I find. I am humbled that this internet record of a small community, a mirror for thousands of others like it has renewed the footprints of history that Lisiewicz has written so passionately for new readers to follow.
Mapa Taktyczna Polksi 1:100,000 scale maps, produced by Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny, 1932, contemporaneous to Chronicals of Lake Narocz: P29 S40 Swir (11.4mb) and P29 S44 Miadziol (12.3mb)Polish maps of this era were among the best in the world and surpassed the English Ordnance Survey of the time in terms of clarity and design. The settlements that Lisiewicz discusses in Chronicals are all here in these fascinating maps.
The search engine hits that this reproduction of "Chronicals" will generate are a beacon, connecting other seekers and those with knowlege who can add to this story - I want to hear from you all - see my Contact Page for details how to get in touch with me.
Follow this link Myles Hildyard to take you to the detail page.
"Myles Hildyard's Letters Home 1939-45" a remarkable record of one man's war through the Mediterranean, North Africa and the D Day landings is one of the great narrative histories of World War II. Hildyard died in 2005 and this page serves as a recommendation to read his life and is an obituatry to him. Flintham Hall, the Hildyard family seat is just a few miles from where I write now in Nottingham, England.
