Thu, 01 Jan 1970 01:00:00 +0100Sat, 22 Aug 2026 06:59:54 +0200https://english.radio.cz/grave-matters-8585753© 2026 Radio Prague International This week Czech Books is looking at the novel Mrchopěvci, or Gravelarks, the first novel by the hugely accomplished polymath and polyglot author Václav Pinkava, who wrote - amongst others - under the pen name Jan Křesadlo. Pinkava was born in Prague in 1926 and emigrated to Britain in 1969 where he worked as a clinical psychologist in Colchester. Gravelarks was his first novel, written during his early retirement; it was hailed by author Josef Škvorecký as "one of the most original, shocking, truthful works of contemporary Czech fiction" and was awarded the prestigious Egon Hostovský prize. I met, in a rather lively café, with Michael Tate, who is in Prague researching into the works of Pinkava and other writers of his generation, and first asked him to say something about the whole creative work of a man who truly deserves the often over-used epithet 'Renaissance Man'. encr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas)webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) https://english.radio.cz/sites/default/files/images/4f5197446b1f6808606b2a0aab5e5a67.png?timestamp=1583150525 https://english.radio.cz/grave-matters-8585753 Radio Prague International Radio Prague International radio.prague.int@gmail.com clean 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9