POLAND

    I can highly recommend this memoir by Lawrence Siddall. It is well written and his stories will keep your attention from the first page to the last. You will get familiar with a variety of characters that include his students, colleagues, and friends, all of whom become very real. What I find most endearing is how this memoir describes our ordinary daily lives.

    As an editor of a local newspaper, I am pleased and honored that, thanks to this book, my beautiful city will become more widely known. With its rich history, interesting architecture, and, of course, the Peace Church, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is a Polish city well worth visiting.  

Anita Odachowska-Mazurek, Editor

Wiadomości Świdnickie, Świdnica, Poland

 

    Lawrence Brane Siddall’s memoir is the sort of book that, as Poles would say it, reads in “a single breath.”  In it, the 67-year-old grandfather takes his reader on a trip from today’s Massachusetts to Poland, and then he travels back in time to his adventure of driving overland from Europe to India in the 1950’s.  Siddall’s highly entertaining personal account is interwoven with his accounts of the rich history of the places he visits and his keen cultural observations.

    In a letter of appreciation one of Siddall’s Polish classes wrote: You told us many exciting things and we know that they weren’t only lessons of English, but also lessons about life. Siddall’s memoir gives its readers lessons about a life well led.

Marek Lesniewski-Laas

Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland

Boston, Massachusetts

 

    This is a well-written and vividly-told story. Once started, it is impossible to put this book down. Lawrence Siddall has had an extraordinarily interesting life. He has an eye for character and a gift for bringing to life particular moments, which makes this memoir one of the best I have ever read! I am impressed that this work, rich in description, facts and atmosphere, is the author’s first book.

Sylwia Mucha

Wrocław, Poland

UNITED STATES

    Whether one is of Lawrence Siddall's generation now enjoying retirement or a younger person, this book will hold the reader in rapt attention.  It is a story of his adventures that begins in Poland in 1997, and then looks back to the Middle East in 1956 when the world still held real adventures in abundance, a world without cell phones, internet communication, jet travel, and seamless ribbons of asphalt linking the far corners of the globe. Siddall’s memoir is written in an engaging style and is full of thoughtfully-observed vignettes of faraway places that today are more important to us than ever before.

Walter Denny, Professor of Art History,

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

 

    At times both humorous and tender, Lawrence Siddall’s contemplative memoir takes us on his journey to Poland as a Peace Corps volunteer at the age of 67. With a spirit of idealism and the energy of youth, he redefines traditional notions of aging and shows us that life in retirement can be fulfilling and meaningful. His stories are both inspirational and entertaining. I was entirely captivated by his honest voice and self-examination as he describes his many remarkable experiences. A must read.

Dorien Miller

Northampton, Massachusetts

 

    Lawrence Siddall is an excellent writer who has led an interesting life, even after retirement. While the primary focus of his memoir is the joys and challenges he faces as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in Poland in the late 1990s, Siddall also weaves in a fascinating tale of his travels across Europe and the Middle East on his way to India during the politically turbulent 1950s. This memoir will appeal to anyone who has an interest in life in the Peace Corps, post cold-war Eastern Europe, or the adventure of crossing the Middle East in a VW bug during the time Israel, Britain and France were drawn into conflict with Egypt over the Suez Canal in 1956.

Conny Jamison

San Diego, California

 

    It has been a real reading pleasure to share the adventures of Lawrence Siddall. The sense of excitement with which he has viewed both opportunities and challenges that came his way has made for a lifetime of interesting and varied experiences.  He brings to his writing not only his stories but also the optimism and pleasure in living that made them possible.

Betty Romer

Amherst, Massachusetts