Olda Fitzgerald

Lenin, Hitler, Sloane Square – a Polish noble’s 20th-century Odyssey

A review of The Ape Has Stabbed Me: A Cocktail of Reminiscence, by Vincent Poklewski Koziell. A hilarious tale of hats, hous­es, drinks and direc­torships

The eyes of a killer? Vincent Poklewski Koziell relates, in his reminiscences, the story of a chimpanzee stabbing a butler during a dinner party. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images 
issue 26 July 2014

If Vincent Poklewski Koziell has really drunk as much as he claims in this book I doubt he would be the spry and handsome 88-year-old to be seen bicycling around Sloane Square that he is today — a slight fall having proved no impediment to his progress.

He came from a grand family of diplomats on his mother’s side.

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