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Justin Quinn arrived in Prague from Dublin in 1992. He is a teacher of literature at Charles University. He has written three highly regarded collections of poetry: the first is the very strangely named "The O,o,a,a Bird", the second is the book "Privacy" and the third is "Fuselage". Justin joins Bernie Higgins in the studio.

Welcome to Czech Books. Ivan Blatny is one of the most interesting but most neglected Czech poets of the 20th century. He was born in Brno in 1919 and died in England in 1990. In his twenties Blatny was one of the central figures in the cultural avant-garde, alongside the likes of the artist and poet, Jiri Kolar, and the painter Kamil Lhotak. But when the communists came to power in 1948 he defected to Britain, much to the fury of the Czechoslovak authorities. In the years that followed his mental health gradually deteriorated and he was diagnosed

"Relationships created over hundreds of years can't be easily destroyed - relationships to those complicated yet ordinary things: wood, soil, the landscape. The unique awareness in mind and heart of those things that form the essence of a place is called genius loci - something that cannot be given a name, but to which we always return." Welcome to Czech Books. Those were a few lines from the beginning of a fascinating new book by the 49-year-old Prague writer, geologist and philosopher, Vaclav Cilek. It's called "Prague: Between History and Dreams"

"The sky over the western horizon was a riot of colour. Small clouds, edged with burnished gold, drifted into the bright beyond. The scene in all its splendour, put me in mind of an explosive display of coloured fountains, or the outpouring of some demented painter, who had flooded the canvas with golden oranges, swimming in their own blood-red juice. It was as if a rainbow was glowing inside an open furnace. But most of all, it was like the sun setting in the mountains, and beautiful to behold..." A wonderfully lyrical passage from one of the

It is a pleasure for me to do this week's edition of Czech Books. I had the opportunity to speak with Czech author, playwright and journalist Benjamin Kuras. We have had Benjamin numerous times here at Radio Prague, so perhaps some of you may already know that he planted his seeds in journalism here at our station. But his stay at Czech Radio was cut short. He started in April 1968 and after the Soviet invasion in August, emigrated to Britain where he began to work for the BBC. Although still residing in England, Mr. Kuras continues to write polemical

Welcome to Radio Prague and today's special programme an extended edition of Czech Books. Today we look at what one NGO, titled Nova Skola is doing to help promote multiculturalism in the Czech Republic and we'll be talking to the outspoken and charismatic David Murphy, a representative of that organisation who feels most strongly about the importance of helping minorities in the Czech Republic. In the interview we discuss: the situations with minorities, notably the Czech Republic's largest minority the Roma, the assistant teachers programme,

Welcome again to the rich world of Czech writing with Czech Books. Iva Pekarkova is a writer who loves adventure. Regular listeners to Czech Books will know that she's best known for her novel "Dej mi ty prachy" - Gimme the Money - which was inspired by her years working as a New York cab driver. Her first novel from the late eighties, "Pera a perute" - Truck Stop Rainbow - explored the fate of a young hitch-hiker-turned-hooker in Czechoslovakia just before the fall of communism, and now she has just completed a work of non-fiction, a travelogue

Today we look at a book that wasn't written by a Czech. The author is the Canadian journalist Karen Levine, but the story she tells has its roots firmly in the Czech countryside. Her book, "Hana's Suitcase" tells the story of a Czech girl, Hana Brady, and how her tragic fate in the Second World War came to touch the hearts of children on the other side of the globe. There have been many books written about the Holocaust, but this story is unusual: it takes us from the quiet little town of Nove Mesto, where Hana was born into an ordinary middle

Welcome again to the world of Czech writing, with Czech books. Prague is a city of legend - its origins are steeped in mediaeval mythology - and even the river Vltava is said to be frequented by mysterious and malicious water-sprites. And it's not just Prague. The Czech countryside is rich in folk legend, and the mysteries of this country's past have inspired Czech writers through the generations.

This week we're going to be looking at a very special area of Czech writing, children's literature. I'm delighted to have with me in the studio Monika Voskova, who is a translator of - amongst other writers - Muriel Spark, J.M.Coetzee, and in children's literature Paul Zindel and Judy Bloom. She also teaches in the English Department of the Charles University's Pedagogical Faculty, where she specializes in children's literature. And the book we'll be discussing specially is "Fairytales" by Karel and Josef Capek, which exists in an English version