In Conversation with Adriena Vesela: A Czechoslovak Story

By S.D. Gripton and Sally Dillon-Snape

This is the personal story of Adriena Vesela, a Czechoslovakian lady, who lived most of her life under communist rule, as told to the writers' S.D. Gripton and Sally Dillon-Snape. She describes in some detail the constrictions of life for the Czech people under the communist thumb but it also details the struggles she suffered from when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 with Czechoslovakia following soon after. The change was so sudden that the citizens of Czechoslovakia had no time to take in what had happened in their lives. Freedom was cast upon them suddenly and without warning and many, like Adriena, struggled with such release. At the age of 26, she set out on a pilgrimage to England, to follow routes she'd read about in the Peak District whilst learning the English language during her time at University. Whilst there, she fell after being shocked when a blackbird flew out of a hedge as she was hiking with her large rucksack on her back. He fell to her right knee and fractured it. As she sat on the pavement just outside an English village, not knowing what to do, a car pulled up and a stranger climbed out and asked if she needed assistance. That meeting began a whole new chapter of Adriena's life as she and the stranger fell in love. And her mother thought he was perfect. An interview with a difference, a love story for our age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: S.D. Gripton
• Release date: Jun 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215386613

S.D. Gripton

S.D. Gripton novels and real crime books are written by Dennis Snape, who is married to Sally who originate from North Wales and Manchester respectively and who met 18 years ago. I work very hard to make a reading experience a good one, with good plots and earthy language. I enjoy writing and hope readers enjoy what I have written. I thank everyone who has ever looked at at one of my books.

Book preview

In Conversation With…

…Adriena Veselá

A Czechoslovak Story

With S.D. Gripton & Sally Dillon-Snape

Copyright © Sally Dillon-Snape & Dennis Snape (2023)

The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with

The Copyright Act 1988

All characters and events in this publication other than those of fact and historical significance available in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons living and dead is purely coincidental

All rights reserved. No part of this

publication may be reproduced,

stored in retrieval systems, or transmitted in any form or by any means

without the written permission of the publisher

cover by Snape

***

Part One

S.D.S.

Today I am here with my husband, S.D. Gripton, and we are gathered to interview a young Czech lady, who has an interesting tale to relate. Though we are successful writers of novels, we have never carried out an interview such at this, if we get it wrong it is our fault, for the subject is absolutely riveting when she tells her tale. The interview is taking place in a hotel room and is designed to be very informal. Our subject will be allowed to talk, to tell her tale, with as few interruptions from us as possible. It is, after all, her story. We are recording with the permission of the subject, my husband is here as a plus one, ready and willing to brew tea and coffee and keep up the supply of biscuits. He is ready to go, as am I, and our interviewee is nodding. So, let’s go. Hi, to you. I wonder if you would be good enough to tell us your name.

A.V.

My name is Adriena Veselá.

S.D.S.

Welcome. May I call you Adriena.

A.V.

Of course (said with a smile and a shy laugh).

S.D.S.

And you are here today, speaking to us because…?

A.V.

‘I wish to speak about my country and myself; in that order, I think; though I am not sure (said with a further smile).’

S.D.S.

And you have no objection to being recorded (shake of the head from Adriena and a further smile)? If you don’t mind, this being your story, we will just let you tell it in the way you wish, in the order in which you wish to tell it. We will not interrupt until we need a point clarifying or if you repeat something, or you make a point worth exploring. Is that all right?’

A.V.

It is exactly the way I wish it to be, and thank you both for the opportunity to tell the story.

S.D.S.

Well, we see that you have extensive notes, so when you are ready to begin, in your own time, Adriena, please carry on.

(a shuffling of paper)

ADRIENA VESELĀ

‘Thank you.

‘A very quick precis.

‘At the age of 11, I was a contented, though not necessarily happy, girl, living in a Panelak building in the city of Prague in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. The Republic had a population in excess of 15.6 million people. I had never travelled and never thought I would.

‘By the age of 11-years it had been discovered by others that I had a real talent for languages, being fluent by that age, not only in my native tongue, but in Russian, Slovak and Hungarian, and I was to be moved into further education (something that was not offered to the vast majority of female students who moved, en masse, into factories) so that I could study English and be of benefit to the State Security Service (the StB). Though that time was many years along in time.

‘At 23-years I was involved in a peaceful revolution that changed my Czechoslovakia forever.

‘And at 26-years-of-age, the country in which I lived, was reduced to only 10.5 million when Slovakia became its own country and Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. We became the Czech Republic, a more liberal west-looking country.

‘Now, at the age of 36, I have continued to learn languages. I can now add French and Spanish to my list. For a full-time occupation, I teach languages to children at a Public School in England and, part-time, act as a translator in the English Court system. I live with a loveable, though slightly crazy Welshman, who spoils me in a way I would never have believed. The existence of such a person I had never learned back in Czechoslovakia. Wales? Whoever heard of it?

‘My name is Adriena Veselá.

And this is my story and the story of my country.’

***

‘I have debated long with myself as to where I should begin this conversation of both a country and of myself, and have decided that my 16th Birthday would be as good a time as any.

‘It was the age at which I ended formal and compulsory education; it ended for everyone at that age; compulsory education was between the age of 6 and 16. Though I was being moved into further education because I was thought to be of use to the State.

‘My best schoolfriends, Sofia Varga and Nina Barlog, were also continuing with further education, except they were returning to Slovakia to continue studies there. We had been together since six and promised to keep in touch forever…but…

‘My birthday was a dour affair, as were all my previous birthdays. There were no presents; my father did not believe in them, they were a capitalist idea, he said, and as a good socialist I should not expect them. He was correct; I did not expect them.

‘I received a birthday card from my wonderful mother which she designed herself, with a little cartoon figure of me on the front, showing a very long-legged girl with a large head. Indicating that I could both run and think. I loved it and still have it.

‘My father; a Major in the Civilian Police VB (veřejná bezpěnost), wore on his dark blue uniform one gold star with