The Queen’s Lily

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is a writer. She has published several novels (“Paris London Dachau”, “Dla mnie to samo”, “Teraz”, “Nieszpory”) and collected interviews (two conducted along with Anna Dziewit: “Głośniej! Rozmowy z pisarkami” and “Teoria trutnia i inne”; and two by herself: “Jeszcze dzisiaj nie usiadłam” and “Piano rysuje sufit”). Agnieszka also published “Dusza światowa” – an extended interview with Dorota Masłowska. Together with Ewa Kuryluk, she wrote a book in the form of a conversation (“Manhattan i Mała Wenecja”), for which they received the Warsaw Literary Premiere Award.

The impressive flower, discovered in the Amazon in the 19th century, was named in honour of the woman who ruled “the Empire on which the sun never sets.”

A childless woman yearning for a daughter consults a witch, who gives her a seed. The woman sows it, and when the plant blooms, she finds a little girl among its petals – thus begins Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, published in 1835. Titled Tommelise in the original Danish (and Thumbelina in English), it is the tale of a miniature girl who is no taller than a thumb. Vilhelm Pedersen, the Danish painter and illustrator of the first editions of Andersen’s fairy tale, depicted her on a water lily leaf.

I do not know whether the renowned British gardener and architect Joseph Paxton was familiar with this fairy tale and illustration, but a dozen or so years after the publication of Thumbelina, in the autumn of 1849, he staged a truly enchanted scene at Chatsworth House, the

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Agnieszka Drotkiewicz:

is a writer. She has published several novels (“Paris London Dachau”, “Dla mnie to samo”, “Teraz”, “Nieszpory”) and collected interviews (two conducted along with Anna Dziewit: “Głośniej! Rozmowy z pisarkami” and “Teoria trutnia i inne”; and two by herself: “Jeszcze dzisiaj nie usiadłam” and “Piano rysuje sufit”). Agnieszka also published “Dusza światowa” – an extended interview with Dorota Masłowska. Together with Ewa Kuryluk, she wrote a book in the form of a conversation (“Manhattan i Mała Wenecja”), for which they received the Warsaw Literary Premiere Award.

Translation: Joanna Figiel

Publish date: 18.03.2022

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Zygmunt Borawski:

used to be an editor of the Architecture & Design section. A blueprint poet.

“This can’t be designed in two weeks,” they said. “A self-taught man with no technical education cannot come up with a stable framework,” they grumbled. We don’t know who bought Joseph Paxton a beer, but every Brit knows what the Crystal Palace was.

The 19th century was the age of revolution, Napoleon, industrialization and international exhibitions. The first one took place in London’s Hyde Park in 1851, on the initiative of Prince Albert, privately the husband of Queen Victoria, up until recently the longest reigning British monarch. During her rule, Britain developed into the world empire that was getting rich quickly; thanks to the new markets and due to the galloping industrial revolution, its workshops and factories were releasing new products at full speed. They were presented to a wider audience at national exhibitions, of which the most splendid one took place in the turbulent but still imperial France. And since this situation bothered the British (not for the first time in history), they decided to show the French that it was their products and exhibitions that were the best in the world. That’s how the decision to organize the first world exhibition in London was taken. The Royal Commission was formed, which was to organize it and fundraise for it. It was led by Prince Albert.

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Dreaming of Crystal Houses

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