Czechs Today | All stories

Anyone who has ever spent a few days among Czechs in Toronto will have probably heard of Ivo and Jindriska Syptak - one of the most amiable and dedicated couples in the city's Czechoslovak community. In their sixties, Ivo and his wife regularly bring together Czechs and Slovaks, regardless of whether they've been in Canada for three months or for thirty years. As you'll find out, they have remarkable stories too. Today: Ivo's parents, Ivo's childhood during the war, and one of the most dramatic escapes from Czechoslovakia ever. Tomorrow: Jindriska

I'm currently at the beautiful and romantic North Bohemian baroque chateau of Jezeri. It's about a two hour drive away from Prague and is actually a former Medieval castle that was rebuilt into a renaissance chateau in the sixteenth century, and then once again after a fire in the eighteenth century. Jezeri lies on the wooded southern slopes of the beautiful Krusne Hory, or Krusne Mountains, but instead of overlooking the ancient park that once stretched out for miles below, the chateau is on the edge of a vast opencast coal mining area. Jezeri

Born in Prague in 1969, Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross trained briefly as a train driver before entering politics in the early 1990s after completing his military service. Since then he has enjoyed a spectacularly successful career, which resulted in him becoming the country's youngest ever premier last year at just 34 years of age.

Outside, on a cold winter's day, there is a rough-and-tumble park. But, inside, in the room where I am is an artists' studio, a studio many Czechs, especially those with children, would recognise for the illustrated figures that look down from the shelves: St George and a comic-looking dragon, a cat that grumbles at a lumbering Golem, Rudolph II hiding on the shelf, and scraggly wolves creeping through an ancient Prague moat. The illustrations of legendary figures from Czech history can only belong to one person and that is artist Lucie

The writer Jan Stavinoha was born in Prague in May 1945, a couple of weeks after the Soviet Red Army freed the Czechoslovak capital from Nazi control. In 1968 the Soviet Army returned to Prague not as liberators but as oppressors. Stavinoha, then a 23-year-old student of classical music, forged paperwork saying he was a "reliable person" worthy of a passport — and fled to the West. Today, nearly 40 years later, he is a popular 'Dutch' novelist, and, he says, a "tourist" in his homeland.

Czech football has gained worldwide recognition and respect, especially since 1996, when nothing but Oliver Bierhoff's golden goal separated the Czech national squad from becoming European champions in England. Subsequent brilliant performances both at home and abroad by Czech players and trainers have proven that this country has earned a place among the world's finest football nations. This edition of Czechs Today is devoted to one such Czech sportsman. Jiri Plisek left Prague and moved to the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, to coach one of the

At first sight Lucie Schwarzova looks like a normal young woman. But as she admits herself, her hobby - historical fencing - makes her a kind of schizophrenic. A female in everyday matters becomes a male, a fighting nobleman to be precise, in her free time.

The New York Times has called his work "magnificent", Publisher's weekly "stunning": he's Peter Sis the Czech-born children's book illustrator and author of such titles as The Starry Messenger, A Small Tall Tale from the Far, Far North, and The Three Golden Keys. In this edition of Czechs Today we look at Peter Sis' career including his very latest book and talk with the author himself.

One of the symbols of the success of Czech cinema in the sixties is the film director Vojtech Jasny. His best known work from that time is called "All My Good Countrymen" - "Vsichni dobri rodaci" in Czech. The film tells the story of a few friends living in a Moravian village in the 1950's.

Greece, like many poorer countries, has a huge diaspora of emigrants living and working abroad. It's estimated that over five and a half million people of Greek origin live in other countries around the world. The Czech Republic also has a sizeable Greek community. But while Greeks living in places like the United States and Australia primarily left their homeland in search of work and a better standard of living, most of the Hellenic community here first came to the Czech lands for a very different reason.