There is one thing that is absolutely guaranteed to raise a laugh among Poles. That's Sami Swoi, the cult Polish comedy from thirty years ago, that in small town Poland still often tops the charts in the DVD rental listings. There is something palpably Polish about Sami Swoi. It is an affectionate tale of two bickering families who live on neighbouring farms in rural, post-war Poland. That title defies easy translation: ‘kith and kin' or ‘among friends' both come close.

Tidal islands
There are islands which never lose their island status. And then there are islands which come and go with every tide. Such fragments of land, which are only proper islands at low tide, are called drying islands or tidal islands. We look at some ...