An interview with the Nobel Prize winning writer, Abdulrazak Gurnah (in Czech translation).

Guido Lagus was a major figure in the pre-war cultural life of Prague. The German occupation brought his career to an abrupt end, but his life and the life of his family went on. In exile they showed an astonishing resilience and creative energy, which has come down through the generations. The family settled in England, but they never left their Prague roots entirely.

Hannah Pritchard (1709–68) was one the great English actresses of the eighteenth century, excelling in tragedy and comedy. On stage she was a pioneer, interpreting important female roles by contemporary playwrights and bringing many Shakespearean roles to life in ways that had never been seen before. Only gradually is her huge contribution to the history of English theatre being appreciated.

Can we compare Russia’s behaviour in Ukraine with the Munich Crisis of 1938?

In her lifetime Elizabeth Jane Weston was better known across Europe than Shakespeare. Known to her many admirers as “Westonia”, Elizabeth was born in England but spent almost all her short life in Bohemia, where she died in 1612. Her grave is still preserved in the cloister of Saint Thomas’s Church in Prague’s Lesser Quarter. In 2012 I organised a series of events to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of the poet’s death.

Václav Havel grew up in a world of privilege, but it was a world of political engagement, where questions were asked, and where there was constant debate about the central issues of the day.

A review of Mary Heimann’s „Czechoslovakia: The State that Failed“

Radio had come of age in Europe, empowering the Nazis by giving a global voice to Hitler, while the BBC’s hand was being forced by Chamberlain.