Michael Plátek

"[My grandfather] remembered mainly the Naive Theatre he co-founded and had many memories of traveling with the Naive Theatre to Russia and North Korea in the 1950s. They brought back wonderful things from there, puppets and various memorabilia. From China, Korea and Russia - we still have those, and so it was a great experience for him. They went there and back by train. I can't even imagine how they could bring all that there and back, all the puppet shows. Everything. But they did take the train."

"He [my father] didn't pay much attention to it, he said: 'I was such fleeting kid. I would just run around Turnov, playing with the kids, and I didn't care much. I had my own chair at the desk in dad's shop, and whenever I wasn't outdoors, I went to my dad's and sat down and made books from age four; that's when I started learning.' He always said it taught him a lot about technique and detail; he really learned to create his stuff in minute detail from his childhood. When he moved on and graduated as his dad's apprentice in his teens, he went on to high school and everything was much easier. He went to a graphic arts high school in Prague and learned the beautiful ways of bookbinding, although he said was more into sports at the time."