Magdalena Kožená in recital
2026-04-21 19:30 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London, W1U 2BP, United Kingdom
Laments, confessions of undying love and the guilt-tinged miniatures of Brett Dean’s Gertrude Fragments take their place alongside lute works ancient and modern in this unmissable programme from Magdalena Kožená and Daniele Caminiti. Their recital’s individual parts combine to tell stories about the deepest human emotions, from abandonment and grief to the wild verbal gestures, ticks and obsessive delights of Berio’s Sequenza III for solo female voice.

Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano

Daniele Caminiti lute

General sale for this concert will open at 10.00am on Tuesday 27 January 2026.

“Get to know you” social evening
2026-05-13 19:00 - 22:00 | Bohemia House, 74 West End Lane, London, NW6 2LX, United Kingdom
This is an opportunity for anyone interested in the British Czech and Slovak Association (members, supporters and friends) to meet, eat, drink, chat (maybe practise your Czech or Slovak) and get to know each other in a relaxed and informal setting.
Everyone interested in Czech and/or Slovak matters is most welcome to join us.
We will be in one of the rooms at Bohemia House, normally the first room on the left.
Food and drinks are available for purchase.
West Hampstead has three stations served by the Jubilee line, Overground and Thameslink.

Jáchym Topol
2026-05-17 15:00 - 16:30 | British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB, United Kingdom
The European Writers’ Festival returns this May, bringing together leading and emerging writers from 26 countries for a weekend of discussions on literature, translation and the challenges shaping Europe today.
Among the featured authors is Jáchym Topol, one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Czech literature. Emerging from the underground cultural scene of 1980s Czechoslovakia, Topol has built an acclaimed career as a novelist, poet and journalist. His works – including City Sister Silver, The Devil’s Workshop and A Sensitive Man, as well as his latest novel Hell Does Not Exist (Peklo neexistuje) – blend myth, history and dark humour to explore the complexities of Central and Eastern Europe. He is a recipient of the Czech State Prize for Literature and works at the Václav Havel Library in Prague.
Topol will appear on the panel “Stranger Things” (Sunday 17 May, 15.00–16.15), alongside Anne-Marie Reuter and Sara Stridsberg. The discussion brings together three established writers known for bold, unconventional storytelling, exploring the boundaries between reality, fiction and imagination.
Organised by EUNIC London in partnership with the British Library and the European Literature Network, the festival offers a unique opportunity to experience the richness of contemporary European writing.
Tickets available for in person or online attendance see link below

Baťa: designed to belong
2026-06-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Czech Embassy cinema, 26 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, W8 4QY
Belonging is not accidental – it is designed. This panel explores how architecture shapes belonging – not just by providing shelter, but by designing everyday life.
Using the Bata village at East Tilbury as a starting point, it examines how modernist ideals, industrial ambition and community planning combined to create a distinctive model of living. Historian Milan Balaban situates the settlement within the global story of Bata cities, while architectural historian Gillian Darley reflects on its place in British modernism. Chaired by John Tusa, the conversation links historical experiments in planned community to today’s questions of development, identity and place-making.
SPEAKERS:
Sir John Tusa is a British arts administrator, author, journalist and former presenter of the BBC’s Newsnight. Born in Czechoslovakia, he moved to East Tilbury in 1939, where his father was Managing Director of the British Bata Shoe Company factory. He is Co-Chairman of the European Union Youth Orchestra and was previously Managing Director of the BBC World Service and Director of the Barbican Arts Centre. He is the author of On Board, Making a Noise and On Creativity.
Gillian Darley OBE is a widely published writer and historian who was President of the Twentieth Century Society from 2014 until 2021. She first visited East Tilbury, in search of the Bata industrial village, in the early 1970s, when researching and photographing her first book Villages of Vision (1975, reissued 2007). Ever since she has returned at regular Intervals. The village featured in her most recent book Excellent Essex (2019). In 2024 Gillian achieved a longed-for aim, a visit to Zlin.
Milan Balaban is a historian specializing in business, economic, and industrial history, with a focus on the global Bata Company network. He is a researcher at the Information Centre Bata, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, and a lecturer at Palacký University in Olomouc. His work examines industrialisation, company towns, and corporate mobility in Central and Eastern Europe. He has published several books, including Bata across Continents (2022), and articles in leading journals, and lectures internationally on multinational enterprises and industrial modernity.

Admission: £5 (+ Eventbrite fee) see booking link below
