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One on OneIvan Klima - no nostalgia for "Mythical Prague" of pre-1989
Rob Cameron's guest in this week's One on One is the writer Ivan Klima, one
of the most important cultural figures in the Czech Republic. Ivan Klima
was born in Prague in 1931, and during the war was sent to the Terezin
concentration camp - his father was Jewish, although he himself was raised
as a Protestant. He later became a successful author, but was labelled a
dissident by the Communist authorities and his writings were banned.
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MailboxMailbox
In this week's edition of Mailbox: Lenka Reinerova - author and honorary
Prague citizen, and Roger Chambers - a Radio Prague listener who has been
tuning in since the late 1960s.
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Current AffairsUK writer Neal Ascherson discusses NATO, EU on Prague visit
The journalist and author Neal Ascherson is one of Britain's leading
experts on central and eastern Europe. He first visited Poland in 1957,
and has spent a great deal of time in the region in the decades since
then. Mr Ascherson recently paid a visit to Prague, where I spoke to him
at an outdoor café. Before getting on to the recent eastwards enlargement
of the European Union, I asked Neal Ascherson if that other alliance,
NATO, was still relevant, so many years after the end of the Cold War:
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One on OneBrian Keenan - Irish author who survived five years of hostage hell
My guest today has, without any exaggeration, been to hell and back: Brian
Keenan was kidnapped in Beirut in 1986 by the militant group Islamic Jihad
and held hostage in the most appalling conditions for almost five
years. Mr Keenan, who comes from Belfast, won a great deal of respect and
admiration for the way he documented his terrible experiences in his book
"An Evil Cradling". When he was in Prague last weekend promoting
the Czech version of the book, I spoke to Brian Keenan in the dining room
of his hotel. He began by outlining what had happened to him. More
Current AffairsSuccessful Irish-American author Michael Collins visits Prague for Bookworld 2004
The focus of this year's Prague Bookworld was on Irish, Scottish and Welsh
literature. Among the guests at Bookworld, which was held at Prague's
Vystaviste trade-fair centre, was novelist Michael Collins, who was born
in Ireland but has made his name in the US, with books such as The Keepers
of Truth and The Resurrectionists. Before the event ended on Sunday
evening, I spoke to Michael Collins and asked him why he had come to
Prague for Bookworld.
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Czech BooksTomas Mika - a Pilgrim's Progress from lyric poetry to hip-hop
Tomas Mika is a man of many talents - poet, translator and hip-hop
performer. Today we talk to him about his most recent work and his history
as a poet, but I'd like to start with his work as a translator. The books
he's translated include Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress", James
Hogg's "Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner" and most
recently Samuel Beckett's "Watt".
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Czech BooksEuro-Stodge or the Dawning of a Golden Age? How three European writers see the future of the continent.
This special edition of Czech Books comes from the Hotel Josef in one of
the winding medieval streets of Prague's Old Town; this is where writers
from different corners of the globe - from Saint Petersburg to
Johannesburg - have gathered for the 14th Prague Writers' Festival. Prague
is right in the heart of Europe: if you go some fifteen hundred kilometres
to the north-west, you get to Britain, if you go the same distance in the
opposite direction, you reach Greece. So with just days to go till the
expansion of the European Union, I'm joined by writers from Greece, the
Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
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Current AffairsWorld-renowned Czech novelist Milan Kundera celebrates 75th birthday
April 1st marks the 75th anniversary of the birth of perhaps the best known
contemporary Czech novelist in the world, Milan Kundera. Rather
surprisingly, the author - who has visited the country on only a couple of
occasions since the Velvet Revolution - is less popular in the Czech
Republic than he is elsewhere. But why isn't Kundera held in high regard
in the country of his birth? More
Current AffairsPrague Writers' Festival highlights: the poetry of Miloslav Topinka
This year's Prague Writers' Festival, which has now come and gone, but left
a lot to be thankful for and a lot to remember. Not least was a meeting of
poets Miloslav Topinka and Zbigniew Machej on Theatre Minor's stage for a
reading of their work last Wednesday.
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Current AffairsAuthor Gary Shteyngart - a former expatriate - returns to Prague for writers' festival
Of all the authors' participating in this years' Prague Writers' Festival,
none seems like a more apt choice than Gary Shteyngart. His award-winning
first novel - The Russian Debutante's Handbook - is actually set in Prague
during the early 1990s. The novel has received much praise for the sharp,
satirical manner in which it portrays the notorious American expatriate
scene that existed in the city back then. We met up with him while he was
here to talk about his comic portrayal of this particular period in
Prague's recent history.
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