The Charge of the Brit Brigade: Tales from Post-Socialist Prague

The Velvet Revolution is over and the capital of what was then Czechoslovakia is on the cusp of change. Foreign businesses are making their way towards Prague hoping to be the first to capitalise on what is seen to be a huge new market. And with them come the young, hungry and often extrovert first frontiers who see the place as the next big thing. When Jo lands in Prague in the early nineties, she has no idea her life will turn upside down. Starting a business about which she knows very little in a place that is not her home is a mad idea but Jo is single and ambitious. So what that she has never run a business before? Who cares that she can’t speak Czech? In those days, if you had a good idea and were prepared to work hard you had nothing to lose. This is a time of high jinks and hope in a city with one foot in the past and the other determinedly in the future. At times Jo teeters on the brink of failure, but as her business grows everything looks bright – apart from her love life, her finances, and her long-term future.