Czech Books | All stories

Edith Templeton is a writer who defies categorization. Born in Prague in 1916 and still alive at the age of 90, she has had an adventurous life. Her work is every bit as adventurous. Here is a description by a Los Angeles Times reviewer: "Imagine Jane Austen and D.H. Lawrence sharing an engrossed conversation about social snobbery and the wolfish pursuit of obsessive sex and you have something of Templeton's atmosphere." Bernie Higgins has become fascinated by Edith Templeton's work and life and tells us more.

In Czech Books this week, we look at award-winnning Irish writer John Banville's relationship with Prague, a city which features in a number of his books, including his personal travelogue Prague Pictures and the historical novel Kepler, which is set in Prague during the reign of Emperor Rudolph II.

The great floods of August 2002 may have been the worst for a century, but they certainly were not the first to hit the Czech capital. Here is a poetic description of a similar disaster way back in 1596.

Vladislav Vancura is one of the best known Czech writers of the period between the First and Second World Wars. At home he is a household name, but if he is not well known abroad, this comes as no surprise. Vancura has often been described as untranslatable. His prose is very poetic, and some would say that his writing has dated. This has not stopped the translator Mark Corner from taking up the challenge of translating what is probably Vancura's best known book "Rozmarne leto", which he translates as "Summer of Caprice" into English. Mark Corner

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.