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Sunday Feature: The Poetic World of Newt

on BBC Radio 3

Newt was the name on the secret police file in Communist Prague that masked the identity of poet Ivan Blatny. In his twenties Blatny was a central figure in the cultural avant garde, but when the Communists came to power in 1948 he defected to Britain, much to the fury of the Czechoslovak authorities, who attempted to lure him back. In the years that followed, his mental health deteriorated, and he spent most of the rest of his life all but forgotten in psychiatric hospitals. David Vaughan explores Blatny's life and poetry, visiting Brno to meet his family, Prague to the see the police files, and the psychiatric hospitals in Suffolk, where Blatny died in 1990. Producers David Vaughan and Richard Bannerman

Contributors

Unknown:
Ivan Blatny.
Unknown:
David Vaughan
Producers:
David Vaughan
Producers:
Richard Bannerman

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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