Often described as “a cynic with a human face”, Zygmunt Frankel (1929-1997) was born in Poland and grew up in Siberia. He lived in England before settling in Israel which provides the background for much of his writing. His novel Short War, Short Lives was published by Abelard-Schuman in New York. Stories and poems were published in Transatlantic Review, London Magazine, Adam International Review, The European, Tel-Aviv Review and other British, American and Israeli literary magazines. Frankel wrote mostly in English but a series of Hebrew children books that he both wrote and illustrated, recently appeared in both English and Japanese. A Witch Growing Old, a collection of translated short stories, was published in Hebrew and the award-winning The Octopus appeared in Arabic. Frankel was also a painter, printer, translator, sculptor, editor, photographer and an accomplished automation engineer.