What inspired you to tell Tolek Klings’ story?
At the family’s ‘Italian’ lunches – mother-in-law Italian – when I was courting Tolek’s daughter, fuelled by the odd glass of red, Tolek started telling me snippets of his six-years as a Jewish soldier in the Polish army during WW2. I had read many WW2 books, but had never heard anything like this soldier’s amazing story.
During the next twenty-five years we spent many evenings sipping whisky – we had upgraded from red – while Tolek reenacted his war story out for me. This man’s incredible story just had to be told and passed on.
This book was written over the course of many years, with you piecing together your father-in-law’s memories. How did you document these conversations and memories to eventually write The Miracle Typist?
This war memoir was told to me 35-40 years after it happened. As Tolek passed these events on to me, it was as if he was fitting one piece after another into a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle in his head to reform the full picture. When we met after work, Tolek would extract from his pocket notes and original documents, and we’d laugh, as like two facing off gunslingers, I would also whip out from my pocket prepared notes asking for details such as: what food did he eat during that six-year war campaign; what were the villages like in the African desert; what conversations did the soldiers have while resting from the battlefield… and many more.
For more than thirty years I’ve struggled with my father-in-law’s – extraordinary Second World War memoir. I sincerely hope I have written it with the honestly and vividness with which it was told to me.
As Tolek’s son-in-law, you are incredibly close to his life and story. How did your relationship to Tolek influence your writing and research process?
I was honoured that Tolek trusted me to write his story. I wanted to make sure that I conveyed it in the same honest way that it was handed down to me. Tolek told me it was above all a war of moral issues, and that The Miracle Typist had a much broader landscape than a mere wartime memoir.
Writing this account brought us even closer together, it formed a bond between us that made me feel almost as though I had accompanied him throughout his six-year war campaign. Having confided this intricate war biography to me, Tolek became more than my father-in-law. He was now my mentor and friend. Tolek the man, as well as his story, needed to come alive. I hope I did justice to it.
What was your favourite part of the book to write, and which parts did you find the most difficult to recount?
My favourites were Tolek’s reenactments of what I call his flashbulb ‘paparazzi’ incidents … FLASH … the confrontation with the French high-brass in Lebanon . . . FLASH. . . his political, academic, philosophical interchanges with Jan the war correspondent while on army manoeuvres . . . FLASH . . . the time they fraternised with the Germans and Italians when the desert flooded . . . FLASH . . . the good luck wedding blessing from the Rasputin type crazy Eliezer, that ushered Tolek’s miraculous battlefield escapes … FLASH … how he earned “The Miracle Typist” moniker. Tolek would jump to his feet, waving his arms as he re-enacted these FLASH moments over and over – sometimes it felt like watching a video. Tolek would smoke, laugh and hoot, recounting his Armageddon deliverances.
The most difficult parts of this story were the Modena Speakers, the incident in the woods when he was robbed at the start of the war – and of course – the “Terror Strikes” episode, after the war was over.
Tolek’s story is remarkably moving and inspiring – what do you hope readers will take away from this book, and from Tolek’s incredible journey?
I hope the readers will take away the experience of having journeyed through these six years of war inside this one soldier’s head, experiencing what he had. Tolek told me one day that the Second World War was above all a war of moral issues, and certainly The Miracle Typist has a much broader landscape than a mere wartime memoir.
I hope the readers will understand that this story raises confronting human rights issues; it puts the war on a personal level for both the narrator and the readers. It was Tolek’s fervent hope that telling his story would do some long-term good, helping people of all backgrounds to understand and relate to each other as equals.
This story also shows that once you get to know your ardent enemy, you find that they are not that much different than you and you can become friends and help each other. It was also important to Tolek that people should be aware that it is possible to overcome loss and ultimately make a new and happy productive life.
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