Radek Sikorski: a Spectator foreign correspondent made good

Radek Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, is undoubtedly one of the most dashing figures on the world stage. I first met him in the mid-1980s, possibly when I was a guest of the Oxford Union and Radek who, I seem to remember, was wearing white tie and tails, was on the standing committee. At that time, he was a refugee from communist Poland, having helped organise resistance to martial law, and — though I did not know it then — a member of that nursery of world rulers, the Bullingdon Club. I made him The Spectator’s Afghanistan correspondent and he filed brave and fascinating reports from within the ranks of the mujahedin. In his mind, the Soviets’ retreat from Afghanistan was a dummy run for getting them out of eastern Europe. In this publication in April 1990, he described how he had just bought a ruined country house and estate in Poland and would restore it. He foresaw a good future: ‘On this patch of land it will seem as if communism had never existed. Only when our surroundings, as well as our heads, are cleansed of the grime of 40 years will we be able to breathe freely again… We have won the clash of ideas. It’s now time to stop wagging our tongues and get down to work.’

Radek has realised his dream. He and his wife Anne Applebaum, the distinguished historian, have restored that Polish manor house, Dwor Chobielin. She and Danielle Crittenden have published From a Polish Country House Kitchen (‘90 recipes for the ultimate comfort food’). Radek is the most renowned Polish politician and, in the Ukraine crisis, has emerged as the most eloquent scourge of the nationalist/communist legacy embodied in Vladimir Putin.

But perhaps he has not entirely stopped his tongue wagging.