During and after the second world war, 120,000 Poles were given leave to remain in the UK as thanks for their help during the conflict - this book is a fictional account of just one of those families. Set during the 1960s and 1970s, The Black Madonna of Derby traces the story of the Baran family living in a provincial town in England. Their seemingly ordinary existence in fact hides secrets of past betrayal, madness and tragedy. The swinging sixties in London is vividly recreated, as is the hardship of life under communism in the Poland of that time. This book is unique in that there are no other novels dealing with the story of second generation Poles in the UK.