America was the kind of place where you fulfilled your dreams. But I don’t regret coming back
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Jiří Popel was born on 16 January 1955 in Prague as the third child of the literary historian and philologist Miloš Popel. He grew up in the Small Side of Prague. His family was constantly persecuted by the Communist regime. It began with the “nationalisation” of his grandfather’s law firm and culminated in Jiří’s signing of Charter 77 and emigration to the US in 1979. He spent a happy and successful fifteen years in California. He worked his way up to the post of director of a laboratory that made film make-up and props, and he enjoyed America to the full. After the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, he returned home in 1993. He started a family here. He translates books from English and plays in a big beat band called Píča (“Cunt”).
