Jan Kaplicky (1937-2009) was a visionary architect with a passion for drawing. It was his way of discovering, describing and constructing; and through drawing he presented beguiling architectural imagery of the highest order. Many of his sketches, cutaway drawings and photomontages are brought together and celebrated in this book. These drawings date from the early years of his independent practice, Future Systems, in the 1970s, to his final ink drawings, executed in the mid-1990s. Featured projects range from design studies for the International Space Station, undertaken with NASA, to the Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground, in London, winner of the 1999 Stirling Prize.

This is the first monograph on the life and work of the Czech born British architect Kaplicky (1937-2009). It is a fully comprehensive work based on a decade of research and is a distinctive portrait of one of the most distinguished architects and designers of the 20th and 21st centuries. At the same time it is an exploration into historical events, which influenced a number of talented artists, writers and designers, some of whom were forced, like Kaplicky, to emigrate from Czechoslovakia in order to expand their skills and search for beauty through living in freedom in democratic countries. After immigrating to the United Kingdom in 1968, Kaplicky applied his imagination and diligence and enhanced his skills and aptitude, gaining admiration and respect following the cofounding of the innovative Future Systems studio in 1979. With his wide-ranging architectural and design oeuvre Kaplicky affirmed greatness of his immense talent and ability. The author was a friend, through their shared emigre life experience, giving him broad insight into the inception and realisation of this book. He searched family archives and referenced Kaplickys private diaries. The author drew on everybody who had something important to say and gathered written memories and interviews from Kaplickys friends, colleagues, partners and clients, which form the cornerstone of the monograph. His aim was to write a book that would mirror Kaplickys life and work, a representation made up not only from the authors own point of view, but also according to others with whom Kaplicky had been in contact during his life. The book has many voices and has a kaleidoscopic format, which truly explores Kaplickys complex personality and his creativity. It does not overwhelm with excessive information, but builds a picture of the man behind his designs and tells his story. The author presents Kaplickys personal side with sensitivity and explains his dramatic decision-making.

Heda Margolius Kovaly (1919-2010) was a renowned Czech writer and translator born to Jewish parents. Her bestselling memoir, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her crime novel Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street based on her own experiences living under Stalinist oppression was named an NPR Best Book in 2015. In the tradition of Studs Terkel, Hitler, Stalin and I is based on interviews between Kovaly and award-winning filmmaker Helena Trestikova. In it, Kovaly recounts her family history in Czechoslovakia, starving in the deprivations of Lodz Ghetto, how she miraculously left Auschwitz, fled from a death march, failed to find sanctuary amongst former friends in Prague as a concentration camp escapee, and participated in the liberation of Prague. Later under Communist rule, she suffered extreme social isolation as a pariah after her first husband Rudolf Margolius was unjustly accused in the infamous Slansky Trial and executed for treason. Remarkably, Kovaly, exiled in the United States after the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, only had love for her country and continued to believe in its people. She returned to Prague in 1996. Heda had an enormous talent for expressing herself. She spoke with precision and was descriptive and witty in places. I admired her attitude and composure, even after she had such extremely difficult experiences. Nazism and Communism afflicted Heda's life directly with maximum intensity. Nevertheless, she remained an optimist. Helena Trestikova has made over fifty documentary films. Hitler, Stalin and I has garnered several awards in the Czech Republic and Japan. PRAISE FOR KOVALY'S INNOCENCE A luminous testament from a dark time, Innocence is at once a clever homage to Raymond Chandler, and a portrait of a city - Prague - caught and held fast in a state of Kafkaesque paranoia. Only a great survivor could have written such a book. - John Banville Innocence is an extraordinary novel ... in 1985, Kovaly produced a remarkable work of art with the intrigue of a spy puzzle, the irony of a political fable, the shrewdness of a novel of manners, and the toughness of a hard-boiled murder mystery ... Just as few will anticipate the many surprises and artful turns of Innocence, a book sure to dazzle and please a great many readers. - Tom Nolan, The Best New Mysteries, The Wall Street Journal Kovaly's skills as a mystery writer shines, as she uses suspense, hints, and suggestions to literally play with the reader's mind ... Innocence is an excellent novel for readers who are up for a challenging, intelligent, and complex story - one that paints a masterful picture of a bleak, Kafkaesque, and highly intriguing time, place, and cast of characters. - The New York Journal of Books Although not out of love for Hegel, Heda Margolius Kovaly makes a very Hegelian point: actions, as Hegel tells us in the section on Antigone in Phenomenology of Spirit - even seemingly small, meaningless actions - always reach beyond their intent; and the impossibility of foreseeing how the consequences will ripple outwards does not absolve us of guilt. As for innocence, the woman who went to hell twice wants her readers to know that there is no such thing. - The Times Literary Supplement

Reflections of Prague is the story of how a Czech Jewish family become embroiled in the most tragic and tumultuous episodes of the twentieth century. Through their eyes we see the history of their beloved Prague, a unique European city, and the wider, political forces that tear their lives apart. Their moving story traces the major events, turmoil, oppression and triumphs of Europe through the last hundred years - from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the First World War; from the vibrant artistic and intellectual life of Prague in the times of Kafka, the Capek Brothers and Masaryk to years of hunger in a Polish ghetto and the concentration camps of Hitler; from the tyrannous rule of Stalin to the rekindled hopes of Dubcek and the subsequent Soviet occupation to liberation under Havel. Told from Ivan's perspective, it is a poignant but uplifting tale that tells of life lived with purpose and conviction, in the face of personal suffering and sacrifice.

'A remarkable book. This archetypical story of the twentieth century is intertwined with an almost stream-of-consciousness narrative of the history of the Czechs, of Prague, interspersed with samples of exquisite poetry by great contemporary poets. So the narrative flows like Eliot's sweet Thames full of the debris of tragic lives, of horrors, of moments of beauty and testimonies of love - all against the backdrop of man's inhumanity.' "Josef Skvorecky"

'A poignant and vivid "memoire" of a child searching for traces of his father, lost in the murky ideologies of post war Central Europe. An engrossing book.' "Sir John Tusa"

The oral history of a renowned Czech writer, whose optimism and faith in people survived grueling experiences under authoritarian regimes. Heda Margolius Kovály (1919-2010) was a renowned Czech writer and translator born to Jewish parents. Her bestselling memoir, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her crime novel Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street—based on her own experiences living under Stalinist oppression—was named an NPR Best Book in 2015. In the tradition of Studs Terkel, Hitler, Stalin and I is based on interviews between Kovály and award-winning filmmaker Helena TreÅ¡tíková. In it, Kovály recounts her family history in Czechoslovakia, starving in the deprivations of Lodz Ghetto, how she miraculously left Auschwitz, fled from a death march, failed to find sanctuary amongst former friends in Prague as a concentration camp escapee, and participated in the liberation of Prague. Later under Communist rule, she suffered extreme social isolation as a pariah after her first husband Rudolf Margolius was unjustly accused in the infamous Slánsky Trial and executed for treason. Remarkably, Kovály, exiled in the United States after the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, only had love for her country and continued to believe in its people. She returned to Prague in 1996. Heda had an enormous talent for expressing herself. She spoke with precision and was descriptive and witty in places. I admired her attitude and composure, even after she had such extremely difficult experiences. Nazism and Communism afflicted Heda's life directly with maximum intensity. Nevertheless, she remained an optimist. Helena TreÅ¡tíková has made over fifty documentary films. Hitler, Stalin and I has garnered several awards in the Czech Republic and Japan.