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Czech BooksDickens and the Good Soldier Švejk
Here is a question for the Dickens bicentenary. What is the connection
between the great 19th century English novelist and the best-loved Czech
literary anti-hero? The answer is, surprisingly enough, that without
Dickens we quite possibly wouldn’t have Švejk at all. David Vaughan
looks at this and some other Czech links with Dickens in this week’s
Czech Books. More
Current AffairsCreator of world-famous Krtek (Little Mole) dies at 90
The Czech illustrator and animator Zdeněk Miler has died at the age of 90.
The artist was best known for the creation of Krtek (or Little Mole), a
cartoon character loved by generations of Czech children that first
appeared in the 1950s. Earlier in 2011, a plush toy of the animated
character even went to space on one of the last space shuttle flights. More
SpotlightA tale of two restaurants
Hrabal’s book "I served the King of England" makes working in a
restaurant sound very dramatic, and very glamorous. But the novel also
suggests that such drama and glamour belong to a time now long gone. To
find out whether this was true, I visited two of Prague’s most famous
restaurants, to talk to their owners about their work from day-to-day. More
Czech HistoryJosef Lada – landscape painter and Švejk illustrator
As one art critic once said, the paintings of Josef Lada accompany Czechs
from cradle to grave. He is as well known for his illustrations of fairy
tales and children’s readers as he is for his landscapes, which each
Christmas are printed thousands of times over on the front of the
nation’s Christmas cards. Lada was also the artist who gave the grinning,
rotund Good Soldier Švejk his form. More
Current AffairsPrague mayor renews “Blob” debate
The drawn-out debate over the construction of a futuristic building
colloquially known as “the Blob” originally meant to house the Czech
National Library in Prague has taken a new turn. Designed by the late
Czech-born London-based architect Jan Kaplický, the huge green and purple
structure divided public opinion when it won an international competition
in 2007 and the project was finally scuppered. Now, more than four years
after the original plan was put forward, Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda has
unexpectedly renewed the debate. More
Current AffairsKrtek tours Czech Republic after return from space
The Czech cartoon character Krtek, or Little Mole, has been given a
hero’s welcome back home after spending two weeks in space. The American
astronaut Andrew Feustel, who took Krtek to space aboard the Endeavour
space shuttle, arrived in Prague last week with his family, and is now
touring the Czech Republic with Krtek to promote science and technology
among young Czechs. More
ArtsCzech Harry Potter happy to leave Hogwarts behind
Mr. Vojtěch Kotek can be proud to say that he is a perfectly normal, young
Czech actor, thank you very much. But on one particular day, almost every
year for the last ten of his twenty-three years, he becomes an eminently
well-known boy wizard by the name of Harry Potter (read: ‘Hari Potr’).
Since the age of 12, Vojta has lent his voice to the ever-maturing
wunderkind in the dubbed version of each of the eight Harry Potter films.
And now – his voice an octave under Daniel Radcliffe’s – as the most
famous fantasy series comes to an end, so ends Vojta Kotek’s career… More
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