Lenka Janiurek has written the remarkable story of her life - an unflinching account of loss, success, love, despair, and the solace of the natural world.
Watermarks
Life, Death and Swimming
By Lenka Janiurek
Allison & Busby / HB / 21 May 2020 / £14.99
Lenka Janiurek’s story really begins with the death of her mother when she was nine. She is the daughter of a Polish immigrant father, and one of eight children. Across the years she is plagued by the rage, addiction and despair of the controlling men she is closest to. This memoir grapples with identity, of trying to find a place in a world and within a family, that don’t feel like your own.
This remarkable story from the 1960s to the present day, describes the loss of her mother to her relationships with 2 stepmothers, early success as a playwright, extensive travel, and encounters with both extreme wealth and poverty. Throughout Lenka explores and celebrates the beauty and tragedy of living life to the full.
Watermarks is a stunning evocation of alienation, searching, and the restorative power of nature.
Talking points
Wild swimming – Water has been central to Lenka’s life, at the moment she swims in the sea every day.
Green housing – Lenka is passionate about housing solutions, she helped build a straw bale house in Pembrokeshire. It was Grand Designs Eco home award winner in 2008.
Living with chronic illness – both Lenka and her younger daughter have had ME, severely limiting their lives.
Living off grid for a year up a mountain in West Wales 20 years ago.
Extensive travel in remote areas of India with 2 children.
Inherited trauma – trying to understand and process the legacies of war, secrets, grief, addiction, violence, and the loss of country and identity.
About LENKA JANIUREK
LENKA JANIUREK was born in York. At the age of 17 she won the prestigious Young Writer’s Competition at the Royal Court Theatre and subsequently had three plays on at the Royal Court Theatre, a platform play at the National Theatre, and one at the Other Place with the RSC in Stratford-on-Avon. She has facilitated workshops in writing, drama, art, and well-being, in schools, colleges, at camps, and in a women's prison. And worked as a baker, fundraiser, caretaker, green builder and researcher. She has four children. She lives close to the sea in Wales.
Lenka is available for interviews, features and events.