My favourite Magda Szubanski sketch is called Satan’s Brides.
From the comedy show Fast Forward, it features her female co-stars as suburban housewives coming together because they need to summon the devil. They have an important question they need to ask. You can click the link above to watch it.
I knew before I read this, there were stories about her father. But I also expected a lot about her show business life. The latter takes up less of the memoir, while the former, and her coming to terms with her sexuality, dominate.
I’m not complaining.
The odd thing is the copy I was lent doesn’t have the title on the cover. Only Magda’s name. So these amazing tales of her father as part of the resistance inside Poland during the second world war, were even more of a surprise.
I too have Polish heritage as my grandparents came here as refugees with their two daughters. There’s an unspoken law when you’re born into a family who’ve experienced the second world war — you don’t ask about it. Those who have seen the worst, want to leave it behind.
Magda had the same issue with her father.
All through life she was keen to know stories from that era. She even went to Poland in the 1980s, keen to learn more about her heritage, and to fill in the gaps her dad kept secret.
I won’t spoil how she finally gets him to talk, but I will say I was just as gobsmacked when I uncovered my mother’s stories. She was only two years old when the war began and I had to ask because I was applying for an EU passport. Her tales were part of the application process.
Magda didn’t find coming out easy.
Let’s face it, most of us Gen X’s didn’t. It was an odd time where any representation was either good natured or part of a joke, with you being the punchline. Magda tells us some heartbreaking stories of wanting to take that giant step, and the fears which stopped her.
I really enjoyed this. The prose is not comedic, but it is just as clever.
Five stars
kevin klehr 