The shunned communist heroine who sailed the world solo

For a short while in the late 1970s, Krystyna ChojnowskaLiskiewicz was probably the most famous woman in communist Poland

- Shaun Walker

As the first woman to sail solo around the world, she was feted in the media, paraded at official events and sent on speaking tours to show off her achievement.

In today's Poland, however, her name has been all but forgotten -something the author of a new book about her life and journey hopes to change.

"We are a country that is usually very proud of its heroes... So when I first learned about her voyage I thought it was strange I had never heard of her before," said Paulina Reiter, a journalist and author of The Lonely Ocean.

Chojnowska-Liskiewicz left Las Palmas in the Canary Islands in March 1976, and returned there in April 1978, after a journey of more than 50,000km. She finished her trip six weeks before the British sailor Naomi James also completed a round-the-world voyage.