Earlier this month some Polish workers called a strike rally – the first of its kind by migrant workers in the UK. Others – opposed to the action – took part in a mass blood donation. There are approximately 700,000 Poles living in the UK, and Polish is now the second most spoken language in England. Both events aimed to highlight the contribution of Poles to British society. Regardless of their perceived success or lack of it – the strike rally was poorly attended – or your views upon them, both events were evidence of a community finding its voice.

And voice was the starting point for Angielski, in which each story offers a different take on the experience of Poles in London. The first story, Another Kind Of Man, goes out today on BBC Radio 4. Anya Lipska is best known for her series of crime novels featuring Janusz Kiszka – tough guy/fixer to the Polish community in East London, and young police detective, Natalie Kershaw. The latest, A Devil Under The Skin, was published in June this year.

Read by Adam Hypki, Anya’s story also features Kiszka, way back in 2006, lurking outside an East End cemetery. It’s a tale of an older generation of Polish immigrants, with dark roots in Poland during the Jaruzelski era.

The setting for Woman Of Your Dreams – read by Natasha Radski – is “a prestigious London hairdressing salon.” Actually, it’s Dorota’s living room in Hounslow, where Angelika sits in the chair having her highlights done and feeling dowdier by the minute as Dorota motormouths about beauty treatments and satellite Polish TV. The writer, A.M. Bakalar, is the first Polish woman to publish a novel in English (Madame Mephisto) since Poland joined the EU in 2004.

Born in Poland but now living in London, Agnieszka Dale is an emerging short story writer. Her tale – Fox Season, read by Anamaria Marinca – centres on a Polish family wrestling with identity. The tastes and smells of home remain, but now they co-exist the flavours of a multi-cultural city.

It’s too early to tell whether the likes of Agnieszka and Asia (Bakalar) are in the vanguard of something that evolves into a wider and fully-developed British-Polish written voice. Given the present volatility of our continent, I suspect this may be determined by history yet to be made. In the meantime, let us enjoy (as I hope you will) these three distinctive pieces of storytelling.

I’d like to thank Asia, Anya and Agi not only for their stories but for their help and insight when this project was in its earliest stages. (And additional thanks to Anya for introducing me to the fabulous Warsaw Village Band – who provide the soundtrack to these programmes.) Thanks also to Magda Raczyńska at the Polish Cultural Institute. I started this journey in considerable ignorance – I am, I hope, less so now.

[Angielski goes out on BBC Radio 4 on Fridays 28 August, 4 & 11 September 2015, and for 30 days thereafter on iPlayer.]