About me

I am a freelance writer, broadcaster, journalist and university lecturer.

Over three-and-a-half decades I have made more radio documentaries than I can remember, working in both English and Czech. I have always loved the alchemy of bringing a story to life through sound. I have also made podcasts and television documentaries and have written and produced radio drama. I am the author of several books, including the novel Slyšte můj hlas (Hear My Voice), which won the Czech Book Prize readers’ award in 2015. The book was published in English by Jantar Publishing in July 2019.

One of my most enjoyable projects in recent years has been to create and curate the exhibition No Night So Dark, first shown at Adolf Loos’s remarkable Winternitz Villa in Prague in 2020. The exhibition tells the story of the Wels family, taking us from the Czech countryside to Vienna, Prague and Oxford. The German version of the exhibition was shown in Berlin (2021) and at the Czech Centre in Munich (2021-2022). The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in English, Czech and German.

As a broadcaster, I have a long history of working with Czech Radio and the BBC. For eight years I was editor-in-chief of Radio Prague, the international service of Czech Radio, and prior to that I was the Prague correspondent of the BBC, working in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine.

I have written widely on media history, and my book Battle for the Airwaves (2008) is a study of the role of the electronic media during the “Munich Crisis” of September 1938. The book has unnerving echoes in our own time.

I have worked extensively with university and secondary school students, teaching Journalism, Media and Media History, and compiling projects in cooperation with the Anglo-American University in Prague, the Palacký University in Olomouc and Czech Radio to use audio archives in the teaching of history.

I directed the first production in English of Václav Havel’s only radio play Guardian Angel for Czech Radio in 2004.

Alongside my work as a writer and broadcaster I am currently teaching Reporting and Feature Writing at Anglo-American University. I have also taught Creative Media at Prague City University and Media and Broadcasting History at Charles University.

I have an MA in Modern Languages (French and German) from Balliol College, Oxford.

I am married with two grown-up children and have lived in Prague since 1991.

---

My sister Sarah and I grew up among the orchards, hop gardens and meadows of rural Kent, in a very old house in a dry downland valley. At the time the house was surrounded by orchards, but apart from two dozen Bramley apple trees, now long past their prime, the orchards and hop gardens are long gone. The house was very cold and impractical, and remains so to this day, but it was a lovely and romantic place to grow up.

Our mother ran the local Citizens’ Advice Bureau in nearby Sittingbourne and later she worked as a geriatric social worker in Canterbury. Our father was what used to be called a “country solicitor”, going into his office at 51 High Street, Sittingbourne every morning for nearly forty years. Times have changed and the office is now a nail studio, but it still has the old stone steps, railings and Regency bow windows. His real love was history and he wrote several books – with a great deal of help from our mother. Their magnum opus was Born to Please, a biography of Hannah Pritchard, one of the great actresses of 18^th century London. Hannah was a many-times great-aunt, and during our childhood she had such a big place in our lives that we thought of her as a living part of the family.

Our parents were two of the kindest and most gentle people I have ever known, and I shall always be grateful for the love they gave us. Both are now buried under an ancient yew in Lynsted churchyard.

I have spent my adult life in Prague, a city that has become my home. This is where I met my wife Katrin and where our children, Thomas and Hannah, were born. Czech has become the language of my daily life and most of my writing. In February 2022 I was granted Czech citizenship, just two weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. The day after the invasion I found myself standing on Wenceslas Square with a hundred thousand of my fellow Czechs to protest against an act that had horrible echoes in Czechoslovak history. At that moment I felt proud of my new citizenship, and I am sure that feeling will remain with me, although a part of me will always be at home in rural Kent, or the version of it I remember from childhood.

---

• “Česká kniha” (Czech Book) Readers’ Award, 2015
• Lidice Memorial “Silver Medal”, 2011
• “Prix Bohemia” Main Prize, 2000

Books

2022: Ear, Jan Procházka, afterword to Mark Corner’s English translation of a Czech literary classic, Karolinum Press, Praha.

2020: Sancta Familia, Martin and Tomáš Wels, afterword and translation. The book, written and illustrated by two teenage brothers, gives a vivid picture of the life of a Jewish family in Prague in the later 1930s. (Triáda, Praha).

2020: No Night So Dark, catalogue to the exhibition of the same name, Post Bellum, Praha. Also published in a Czech edition, Není noci tak tmavé, and a German edition, Keine Nacht So Dunkel.

2019: Hear My Voice, a novel set in Prague in 1938, Jantar Publishing, London
“The personalities are compelling” (Simon Mawer).

2017: Höret meine Stimme! Rundfunkpropaganda und Gegenpropaganda während der Sudetenkrise, in Hörfunk und Hörfunkpolitik in der Tschechoslowakei und im Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren, (Frank und Timme, Munich 2017)

2014: Slyšte můj hlas, Radioservis 2014, a novel commissioned by Czech Radio.  A dramatized adaptation of the book was broadcast in the same year as a nine-part serial by Czech Radio 3, Vltava. “Compelling and innovative” (Respekt.), “Recounts the events of 1938 in a spellbinding way” (Týdeník Rozhlas), “Not only does the book remind us of our recent history, but it has a higher literary merit in that it shows vividly how people can change with time.” (Lidové noviny)

2012: (ed.) If I had been a boy, I would have been shot…  (Radioservis 2012) An audio book based on Jaroslava Skleničková’s moving autobiography, recounting her wartime experiences in Lidice and Ravensbrück.

2008: Battle for the Airwaves (Radioservis and Cook Communications). A study of the role of radio in the run-up to WWII.
“A meticulous and poignant study of the war on the airwaves.” (The Economist)

2005: A Foreign Country. An essay on the legacy of the Lidice massacre of 1942, in Place (Tacita Dean, Thames and Hudson, London 2005).

Radio and Television Documentaries and Podcasts (a selection)

2024: „Komu patří můj jazyk?“ – Who does my language belong to? (Czech Radio, Vltava), a documentarty on the complex relationship between language and nationality in times of war and peace.

2023: “Africký poutník” – An African Pilgrim, (Czech Radio Vltava), a portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, based on an interview with the author.

2014–2023: Neskutečná města” – Unreal Cities, (Czech Radio 3), a series of radio documentaries looking at the complex social, cultural and historical issues that underlie urban development in European capital cities today.

2022: “A Stitch in Time”, a podcast series made with teenagers in the Czech Republic, telling stories of members of their family who have inspired or influenced them. https://english.radio.cz/node/8765630/o-poradu.

2022: „Pod čtyřmi vlajkami“ – Under Four Flags (Czech Radio Vltava). The story of the Prague architect Guido Lagus and his family.

2022: “Houpu se mezi lehkomyslností a tragédií” – Between the Frivolous and the Rather Tragical (Czech Radio Vltava), a portrait of Alan Hollinghurst, based on an interview with the author.

2021: “No Night So Dark”, a seven-part drama-documentary, telling the story of the Czech Jewish family over nearly 200 years. https://english.radio.cz/node/8710117/o-poradu.

2019: “In Their Own Words”, a ten-part podcast series made for Czech Radio. The series gives us a hundred years of Czech and Czechoslovak history through the radio archives. https://www.radio.cz/special-podcasts/in-their-own-words/

2003-2018: “Czech Books”, (Czech Radio 7 – Radio Prague) a biweekly radio programme looking at contemporary Czech writing, including interviews with many of the most interesting Czech writers, poets and translators.

2018: “Prohrabuji v kamnech oheň”, Raking over the Embers, (Czech Radio 3), a five-part drama documentary serial, mapping the history of the Wels family.

2018: “Kontexty”, Contexts, (Czech Radio 3), a five-part series of portraits of people who have made a major contribution to the Czech Republic but were born outside the country.

2013: “Kdo je z pravdy, slyší můj hlas“ Hear My Voice (Czech Radio 3).  A nine-part dramatized documentary on events in Czechoslovakia leading up to WWII, broadcast to mark the 90^th anniversary of the beginning of broadcasting in Czechoslovakia.

2012: “Charles Dickens” (Czech Radio 3).  A two-hour documentary to mark the Dickens bicentenary.

2011: “A Poet in Bohemia“ (BBC Radio 3, Sunday Feature). On the Renaissance poet Elizabeth Jane Weston.

2010: “British Year” (Czech Radio).  A series of 20 radio documentaries on British and Irish literary links with the Czech Republic.

2010: “Já nejsem ztracen…“ I am not lost… (Czech Radio 3).  Award-winning documentary on the Czech poet Ivan Blatný.

2009: “The Muse of Censorship” (BBC Radio 3, Sunday Feature, produced by Julian May). On Czech writers and artists twenty years after the fall of communism.

2009: “Wenceslas Square” (BBC World Service). Part of a Sony Award winning series about famous squares (for Whistledown Productions).

2007: “A Quarrel in a Faraway Country” (BBC Radio 4 “Archive Hour”), on the “Munich Crisis” of 1938. “Radio 4’s Archive Hour is in magnificent form for Saturday’s A Quarrel in a Faraway Country” (Financial Times), “David Vaughan brings history vividly to life” (Daily Mail)

2007: “The Poetic World of Newt” (BBC Radio 3, Sunday Feature). On the Czech poet. Ivan Blatný. “Powerful, true and compassionately told by David Vaughan.” (Daily Telegraph), “Beautifully done, a reproach to our ignorance of a great modern writer.” (Financial Times),
“I liked it, I listened, I remembered” (Josef Škvorecký)

2005: [with Simon Evans] “We Still Breathe Their Air” (BBC Radio 3, Sunday Feature), on contemporary Roma writing in the Czech Republic and the UK.

2002–2004: “From the Archives”, (Czech Radio 7 – Radio Prague) a 150-part series of short radio documentaries, mapping the history of Czechoslovakia in the twentieth century through the radio sound archives.

2004: Directed Václav Havel’s radio play “Guardian Angel” in the first ever English language production of the play (Czech Radio 7)

2002: “The Second Life of Lidice” (Czech Television) [with Pavel Štingl]. A 60-minute television documentary on links between the village of Lidice and a mining community in Wales. Commissioned by Czech TV for the 60th anniversary of the Lidice massacre.

2000: “A Tale of Two Villages” (Czech Radio 7). On the Welsh mining village of Cwmgiedd and its unexpected link with Czechoslovakia. Awarded the Prix Bohemia, Czech Radio’s main annual award 2001.

1996: “Uman, Uman, Rosh Hashanah!” (BBC Radio 3). The Jewish New Year in the Ukrainian town of Uman.

1994: “How Things Were Done in Odessa” (BBC Radio 3, Sunday Feature). A portrait of Odessa – then and now – celebrating the writings of Isaac Babel.

Longer articles and papers (a selection)

2023: „Krása literatury je v tom, že nikam nepatří.“ The beauty of literature lies in that it belongs nowhere. Časopis HOST, May 2023. On the Nobel Prize winning writer, Abdulrazak Gurnah.

2022: „Můj dědeček Guido Lagus.“ My Grandfather Guido Lagus. Hospodářské noviny (22-24.4.2022). The Prague architect Guido Lagus, his legacy and his remarkable family.

2022: „Bory šumí po skalinách“ The Pines Rustle over the Rocks.
Hospodářské noviny (08.02.2022). On becoming a Czech citizen.

2020: “History is Written into the Stones”, (Literární noviny) on the British novelist Sarah Perry.

2019: “An Eighteenth Century Superstar”, on the actress Hannah Pritchard, Society for Theatre Research, London. https://www.str.org.uk/hannah-pritchard-remembered/.

2016: “You cannot be silent about politics”, (Právo), a portrait of the Turkish writer Asli Erdoğan.

2015: “Unreal Cities”, (Magazín Vltava), an introduction to the author’s radio series of the same name on the challenges facing policy-makers in major European cities today.

2014: “About Us, Without Us” (Respekt), echoes of the Munich Crisis of 1938 in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

2013: “Maybe tomorrow…” (Souvislosti 2, 2013), on the poet Ivan Blatný, with Antonín Petruželka and Adéla Petruželková,

2013: “Hear My Voice: reflections on propaganda and counter-propaganda during the Munich Crisis”, paper delivered at the conference: “Radio and the Politics of Radio Broadcasting in Czechoslovakia and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia 1938-1945”.

2012: “In all my verses I rehearse the truth” (Literární noviny).  On the life and work of the renaissance poet Elizabeth Jane Weston.

2012: “Seeking the Truth.”  A speech to launch the European Broadcasting Union annual Radio News Conference in Prague.

2011: Guest editor for a special edition of “Focus” (the annual magazine of the British Chamber of Commerce), looking at press freedom and ethics.

2010: “A Bad State and a Bad Nation” (Respekt). A review of Mary Heimann’s book “Czechoslovakia: The State that Failed”. https://www.respekt.cz/respekt-in-english/a-bad-state-and-a-bad-nation.

2009: “A Faraway Europe” (Respekt). On the complexities of European integration in a historical context.

2008: “The Master’s Voice” (The Guardian). On manipulation of radio in the run-up to WWII. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/oct/09/radio.hitler.bbc.czechoslovakia.

2006: Obituary of Anna Nešporová (The Times).

1996: Obituary of Olga Havlová (The Independent)

Since 2007: Freelance writer, broadcaster, journalist, university lecturer and curator.

1998–2006: Editor-in-Chief, Radio Prague (the international service of Czech Radio).

• 2004–2006: A member of the steering committee of the International Broadcasting Group in the European Broadcasting Union.
• 2004–2006: Coordinator and editor of the weekly international radio magazine Insight Central Europe (a co-production between five Central European public-service broadcasters). Secured EU and Visegrad funds for the project.
• 2003, 2005, 2007: Chaired the annual international conference: “Networking European Citizenship Education” (NECE), of the German Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (BPB) and Democracy and Human Rights Education in Adult Learning (DARE).
• 2002: Wrote and co-directed The Second Life of Lidice (a 60-minute documentary for Czech Television about the legacy of the destruction of the village of Lidice by the Nazis in 1942).
• 2001: Awarded the “Prix Bohemia” (the main annual Czech radio award) for the documentary A Tale of Two Villages.

1995–1998: BBC correspondent in Prague (covering the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Ukraine).  Covered political, economic, social and cultural developments in the region.  Made numerous radio documentaries and features on themes as diverse as currency reform in Ukraine and the impact of the 1997 floods in Moravia.

1992–1996: Radio Prague (English Section), editor.

1991–1992: Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University, Prague. Assistant lecturer.

1984-1988: Balliol College, University of Oxford, Master of Arts in Modern Languages (French and German). Awarded the “Fletcher Exhibition”, 1984.

1979-1984: Kent College, Canterbury, Kent. United Kingdom (secondary education).