About the Book

This is a personal memoir of my very special friendship with a very unusual man. My wife and I first met George Borcovec during the short-lived Prague Spring of 1968. This chance encounter was the start of a forty year adventure during which we went behind the Iron Curtain, introduced George to life in Britain, watched in fascination the long struggle for freedom of the Czech people, contacted George and his family again after their flight to Austria, taught English in Northern Bohemia, and visited the wonderful city of Prague more than a dozen times. This book tells that story.

It covers a dramatic period of change in European history: from hard-line Communism to the challenges of freedom and democracy since 1989. It includes some earlier Czech history, and deals with some of the differences between Czech and British culture. There are family photographs and family letters. There are even some jokes, mainly at the expense of the Czech Communist authorities.