Speculative fiction - an umbrella term for science fiction, fantasy, horror and other non-realist forms - has always been peculiarly suited to political radicalism since the form investigates a world that is ‘other' to our own, a world which is in some way changed or altered. It is a thought experiment: by developing this sense of estrangement, science fiction asks us to think back upon our own society.

Entering the Gdańsk shipyards is more difficult than entering Europe. AñA and I knock on the security guard's door, give him our names, then huddle out of the rain while he phones through to Grzegorz Klaman. The temperature has dropped to ten degrees.

Lost. In a smell, in the cold, in a luminous red. In wave after hourly wave of wrenching cramps that wrung our tiny tiny baby and her warm bloody nest, way too early, piece by wretched piece from me.