Popular humorous author Miroslav Švandrlík dies at 77

The Czech writer Miroslav Švandrlík has died at the age of 77. He was one of the country’s most popular humorous authors, perhaps best known for Černí baroni (Black Barons). The novel depicts life in a section of the army created in the 1950s as a kind of prison for people the communist regime considered unreliable. Švandrlík was himself in that “service”. The book Černí baroni was banned by the communist authorities and could only be read in a samizdat version. However, after 1989 a film version became a big success, leading to a popular TV series.