Join Marcel Krueger (Babushka’s Journey) and Paul Scraton (Ghosts on the Shore) at The Winding Stair as they talk about their travels through central and eastern Europe, give readings from their books and discuss their related themes, from family memory to how we tell the stories of the past.

Marcel Krueger is the author of Babushka's Journey, in which he follows the story of his grandmother from her vanished homeland of East Prussia to the labour camps of the USSR. Chasing the sights, sounds and voices of past and present along this route, Marcel has created both fictionalised historical narrative and contemporary travelogue, covering two different journeys that follow the same path.

Further along the Baltic coast, in Ghosts on the Shore Paul Scraton explores the German shoreline between the old East and West Germany dividing line and the Polish border. Exploring a world of socialist summer camps, Hanseatic trading towns long past their heyday and former fishing villages surrendered to tourism, Paul unearths the stories, folklore and contradictions of the coast, where politics, history and personal memory merge to create a nuanced portrait of place. 

Praise for Babushka's Journey:

“This book is a moving account of family love and the devastation of war.”
Max Egremont, author of Forgotten Land

Praise for Ghosts on the Shore:

“This is a beautifully written book that breathes a kind of mythical life into a forgotten corner of Europe. Read it and be transported by glittering prose.”
Ian McMillan, BBC Radio 3