The powerlessness of the powerful
Résumé
This new biography, written by Michael
Zantovsky, the current Czech ambassador to
the Court of St James’s, tries to avoid both
traps. A sympathetic, well-documented and
highly readable account, it reveals, beyond the
contrasts and paradoxes, the deeper connections
and continuities between Havel’s three
successive incarnations: as playwright in the
1960s, dissident in the 1970s and 80s, and President
in the 1990s...