Czech Books | All stories

Norman Davies is one of the most influential contemporary historians of Central Europe. His writings on Poland have had a significant impact on our perceptions of the country, and he is unusual as a historian in his tireless attempts to reach a broader public - beyond the dusty shelves of academia. Last month I managed to catch up with Norman Davies in Prague. When we began our conversation I was more than a little surprised to find out that he has very personal memories of Radio Prague.

Nancy Hawker has just edited a new collection of short stories in English translation by Czech women. It is called "Povidky" and in this edition of Czech Books Nancy talks about the book and the authors included.

This week's edition of Czech Books is bit of a departure from our usual format. We're still looking at a writer, but Alice Nellis is more than that. An award-winning film director and producer of several theatre productions, she brings her words to life on screen and stage alike. She and Radio Prague's Brian Sabin discuss her newest work - Zaplavy, or "Floods" in English - which is now showing at Prague's Theatre on the Balustrade.

This week Czech Books comes from the main exhibition ground in Prague, where the Bookworld - or Svet knihy - festival has been taking place. It was founded in 1997 by Czech publishers and booksellers, mainly to promote literature in the Czech Republic, but in the past years it has grown very much from a simple book fair into quite a major literary festival with writers from many parts of the world coming here. The theme of this year's Bookworld is "Literatures of the North" and the special guest of honour is the Latvian Literature Centre.

In this programme we go south of the border, to explore some intriguing Czech literary and other cultural links with Mexico, stretching right back to the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bernie Higgins begins by recounting an extraordinary episode from the mid 19th century.

We are joined by two writers, Milan Kocourek and Zuzana Slobodova, to talk about their new book "Cesko-slovenska Britanie" - Czech and Slovak Britain. This is a fascinating book that profiles 22 Czechs and Slovaks, who live in Britain or have a connection with Britain, and a further 10 British people who have in some way a close link with the Czech and Slovak nations.

This week we are joined by Igor Malijevsky, who is a poet and author, photographer and performer. It is very common for Czech writers to write in a number of genres. Often poets will write essays and short stories, but Igor has an unusually wide range of activities, and photography in particular is a central part of his life. So how do all these activities fit in with one another?

"Prague is the most beautiful city in the world.... after Antwerp, of course." This is a line from a new book, Nerudova 34, by Fons Montevirgenes, and as you might have guessed, the author hails from Belgium. Nerudova 34 has just been published in Czech translation, and caused quite a splash in the Czech newspapers. In today's programme, Fons tells Bernie Higgins something about the book.

For years now one of the most impressive publishing houses in the Czech Republic has been Joachim Dvorak's Labyrint, focusing on serious prose and poetry as well as the arts, even offering a number of illustrated children's books. Joachim Dvorak has been in love with books all his life and today publishes a number of prominent Czech authors that include Lenka Reinerova, Jaroslav Rudis, and New York-based children's author / illustrator Peter Sis. It was at a book launch of Sis' in Prague last December that I first met Dvorak and saw him promoting

In Czech Books today we talk to a man who has translated many Czech writers into English. If you are interested in Czech literature you may well have come across his name in connection with works by Ivan Klima, Vaclav Havel or Ludvik Vaculik and many others. He is Gerry Turner.