I wrote for Svědectví under the pseudonym Jan Otava
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Ilja Kuneš was born on 13 June 1956 in Sušice, spent his pre-school years here, then lived with his parents in Pilsen. His father Josef taught at the engineering college in Pilsen, in 1968 he headed the rehabilitation committee there, in the 1970s he was dismissed because of this, his mother Marie was a pulmonary doctor. In primary school he believed in communist ideology, was a “proud spark and a pioneer”, in 1968 he became a scout. In August 1968 he was on holiday in Bulgaria with his parents, many people stayed in Yugoslavia on the way back, his father refused a job offer from colleagues in Holland and the family returned to occupied Czechoslovakia. In 1971 he entered the Pionýrů Street Grammar School, now Masaryk Street, and recalls that the atmosphere of the 1960s lingered there. At the gymnasium he joined the Socialist Youth Union (SSM) and wanted to organise a concert by the folk singer and dissident Jaroslav Hutka, but the national committee did not allow it. Because of a boyish incident on a school trip, he and several classmates were charged with disorderly conduct and were not recommended for university. He enrolled in a two-year extension course at the school of tourism in Karlovy Vary, he and his classmate Jan Šváb distributed the Charter 77 document, and during the interrogation his classmate took the blame. Subsequently, he studied translation and interpreting at Charles University in Prague. During a four-week summer school in France, he decided to emigrate. Together with his wife Lucie, they managed to go on a ski trip to Austria, organized by Sportturist, and from Vienna they flew to Paris in January 1983. There he studied political science and worked as a night watchman. He collaborated with the exile quarterly for politics and culture Svědectví, contributed to it under the pseudonym Jan Otava, and became a member of its editorial board. After the Velvet Revolution, he contributed to Český deník and Týden magazine. He took a one-year course in computer graphics and began working in Paris for a company offering translations of exotic languages - Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and Czech. He spent ten years translating directives, regulations and other materials for the European Commission, and now offers clients translations of technical documentation or legal materials. He lives alternately in France and the Czech Republic, but says he understands the French environment better than the Czech one.
