Many thanks for your letter of February 13. Naturally we are terribly sorry that the publication of Michael Moran’s piece has caused upset among the Polish community in Australia. Please be assured, that was never our intention.

We often run travel narratives set in the past, as windows into historic contexts, but always with an indication of time frame – as was clearly the case with Michael’s piece. We purchased the extract in good faith from Michael’s publisher, and they agreed to the few small edits we had to make for space reasons. Apparently, they neglected to run it past Michael, who had also not indicated to the publisher that there was material in the book that should not be offered for extract.

Our readers are very sophisticated and well-travelled and there is no way that anyone would imagine that Warsaw in 1992 could be equated with the city as it is today. We chose that extract for its historic nature and the fact it launches the evolutionary journey in Michael’s book. It is a taster that we believe would result in many sales of the book which, in turn, generates publicity for Poland and its amazing transformation in the past decades.

I do hope this adequately explains where we stand with our decision to publish. To smooth the situation, I have been in touch with Michael and have asked him if he would like to offer us another extract from his book, of a more contemporary nature, to run a bit down the track and he seems agreeable to this. I have also exchanged emails with Mitch Ihnatowicz of LOT Polish Airlines in the hope we can send a travel reporter to your wonderful country to do a piece leading up to the special 200th-anniversary Chopin celebrations in 2010.

Best wishes,
Susan Kurosawa

Susan Kurosawa
Editor, Travel & Indulgence
The Australian
2 Holt Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010
www.theaustralian.com.au/travel

Link to an article about M. Moran and his book

Gancarz - a letter of protest

Ihnatowicz - a letter of protest