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Barbara Day, MBE, PhD

Barbara Day came to Prague to study theatre in the mid-1960s, after graduating in Drama from Manchester University.

In 1980, aware of the suppression of history in Communist Czechoslovakia, Day decided to write her PhD at Bristol University on Václav Havel’s theatre (the Balustrades). She subsequently worked for the Jan Hus Educational Foundation in its support of the “underground university”. After 1989 she helped to establish the JHEF as a Czech and Slovak Foundation, and wrote the book The Velvet Philosophers.

Day now lives in Prague, where she has established herself as a writer and translator. She has received the Commemorative Medal of President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel and been made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her work for UK-Czech cultural relations.