Liz and Jonathan Chambers were in trouble. Mortgage trouble. They'd stretched themselves to busting with their new exciting project - well, Liz thought it exciting - buying and managing the Silchester Tutorial College, and now couldn't sell their old house. Here they were, stuck with two mortgages, mounting debts and a miserable adolescent daughter who hadn't wanted to move anyway.Then Marcus Witherstone came into their lives - and at first it seemed he would solve all their problems. Marcus, senior partner in Silchester's leading estate agency, was large, assured, and wore an expensive overcoat. He knew the perfect tenants from London who would rent their old house - glamorous PR girl Ginny and almost-famous Piers. Everything was going to be OK.But soon Marcus found himself involved with Liz in a way he'd never intended. Keeping his adulterous trysts secret from Anthea was uncomfortably easy - most of the time her head was firmly buried in Improve your Child's IQ. Meanwhile, as Liz was lost in blissful dreams of Marcus, Jonathan was left to run the tutorial college. Neither of them had time to notice that teenage Alice was developing a desperate passion for the tenants, Piers and Ginny. Everyone seemed to be entangled with everyone else, in the most awkward possible way. And as events closed in on him, Marcus began to realise that some deceptions are just a bit too close to home.

Liz and Jonathan Chambers were in trouble. Mortgage trouble. They'd stretched themselves to busting with their new exciting project - well, Liz thought it exciting - buying and managing the Silchester Tutorial College, and now couldn't sell their old house. Here they were, stuck with two mortgages, mounting debts and a miserable adolescent daughter who hadn't wanted to move anyway.Then Marcus Witherstone came into their lives - and at first it seemed he would solve all their problems. Marcus, senior partner in Silchester's leading estate agency, was large, assured, and wore an expensive overcoat. He knew the perfect tenants from London who would rent their old house - glamorous PR girl Ginny and almost-famous Piers. Everything was going to be OK.But soon Marcus found himself involved with Liz in a way he'd never intended. Keeping his adulterous trysts secret from Anthea was uncomfortably easy - most of the time her head was firmly buried in Improve your Child's IQ. Meanwhile, as Liz was lost in blissful dreams of Marcus, Jonathan was left to run the tutorial college. Neither of them had time to notice that teenage Alice was developing a desperate passion for the tenants, Piers and Ginny. Everyone seemed to be entangled with everyone else, in the most awkward possible way. And as events closed in on him, Marcus began to realise that some deceptions are just a bit too close to home.

"These Children grew up under extreme conditions of hardships and hunger. The six sibling broke the cycle and made success out of their lives. This stop child labor and slavery in the family. All the generations from my mom and dad on back, were working the children on the farm. The only way out was leave, go and make it on you own. This pattern was passed down from generation to generation. Our generation put a stop to it without knowing it was going to happen. Why, I don't think it can be answered. In my writings, you might answer the question. This story is wrote by the second sibling in the family. This is what he remembered of the growing up and becoming a Father and husband. Enjoying the laughs and the pain with me while you read this book.

Thank you and that's from my heart, and God Bless you, because I have been blessed."

"These Children grew up under extreme conditions of hardships and hunger. The six sibling broke the cycle and made success out of their lives. This stop child labor and slavery in the family. All the generations from my mom and dad on back, were working the children on the farm. The only way out was leave, go and make it on you own. This pattern was passed down from generation to generation. Our generation put a stop to it without knowing it was going to happen. Why, I don't think it can be answered. In my writings, you might answer the question. This story is wrote by the second sibling in the family. This is what he remembered of the growing up and becoming a Father and husband. Enjoying the laughs and the pain with me while you read this book.

Thank you and that's from my heart, and God Bless you, because I have been blessed."

Duke Albrecht von Waldstein (Friedrich Schiller’s Wallenstein), was one of the greatest Czechs who made astonishing career on the battlefields of the Thirty Years’ War. The Duke went down in European history and he was also one of the greatest builders. Nothing changed Prague, Czech Republic, as dramatically as his gigantic residence, in the Lesser Town (Mala Strana). Waldstein’s Palace has been preserved practically intact, its facade looks exactly as the Duke designed it. We are fortunate to have at least the mask with which one of the most enigmatic men in world history hid his face. The central question of research on Waldstein is his loyalty to the Emperor. We will probably never know if he was loyal to his Emperor in the last years of his life. Waldstein Palace is, however, precious testimony to his self-representation at the time when he constructed his residence in Prague, that is in the years between 1621 and 1630.

The most striking feature of Waldstein Palace is not what it reveals, but what it hides. What we miss on the facade and in the Palace interior is any direct reference to Albrecht von Waldstein. He is conspicuously absent in this huge Palace, on its facade we do not find coat of arms of Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Waldstein, Duke of Mecklenburg, Friedland, Sagan and Glogau, Count of Schwerin, Lord of the lands of Rostock and Stargard. When we look for celebrations of Waldstein, the Palace and its rich interior seem faceless. But at the moment that we forget his personage and start to look for allusions to Empire, the person is suddenly vividly present. We see right before us Albrecht von Waldstein, Generalissimo of the Imperial Army, Admiral of the North and Baltic Seas and Knight of the Order of Golden Fleece. At the peak of his career, in the 1620s, he wholly identified himself with the Holy Roman Empire. This was also expressed in the decoration of his Palace in Prague, which he constructed at that time. In this sense, we may say that in the Palace of the most energetic man of his time, impersonality reigned. All the glory went to the Holy Roman Empire and its Emperor.


The Advanced Guides to Czech Monuments differ from other guide books in questions they ask. Why monuments were created, what their messages were, what is legend and what is history in guidebooks and travelogues ...

Why should we ask? The problem of our world is a timelessness, in which the cultural identity of the entire western civilisation is being dissolved, slowly but inexorably. Today, only a few people understand ancient myths or biblical stories which monuments depict, even though every schoolboy knew them by heart not so long ago. The Western world has almost entirely removed narrative history from the school curriculum, without which historical monuments make no sense, their historical context quickly fading into oblivion. The commercial success of pseudo-historical novels demonstrates that ignorance of and indifference to history is spreading so quickly, that soon there will be nothing left to forget. Therefore, we should ask ourselves before it is too late, what lies behind these monuments, what can their forms and stories tell us.

The Advanced Guides to Czech Monuments are encounters with their creators–the architects, sculptors, painters and, last but not least, their patrons. We have tried to build a gateway to the past from archival documents and scholarly research. We wanted to look at the monuments through the eyes of those who commissioned them and those who worked on these commissions.

The Advanced Guides to Czech Monuments are original historical studies which introduce fresh information and viewpoints. We thoroughly studied everything thus far written about the monuments, but our main attention was devoted to the structures themselves.

Duke Albrecht von Waldstein (Friedrich Schiller’s Wallenstein), was one of the greatest Czechs who made astonishing career on the battlefields of the Thirty Years’ War. The Duke went down in European history and he was also one of the greatest builders. Nothing changed Prague, Czech Republic, as dramatically as his gigantic residence, in the Lesser Town (Mala Strana). Waldstein’s Palace has been preserved practically intact, its facade looks exactly as the Duke designed it. We are fortunate to have at least the mask with which one of the most enigmatic men in world history hid his face. The central question of research on Waldstein is his loyalty to the Emperor. We will probably never know if he was loyal to his Emperor in the last years of his life. Waldstein Palace is, however, precious testimony to his self-representation at the time when he constructed his residence in Prague, that is in the years between 1621 and 1630.

The most striking feature of Waldstein Palace is not what it reveals, but what it hides. What we miss on the facade and in the Palace interior is any direct reference to Albrecht von Waldstein. He is conspicuously absent in this huge Palace, on its facade we do not find coat of arms of Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Waldstein, Duke of Mecklenburg, Friedland, Sagan and Glogau, Count of Schwerin, Lord of the lands of Rostock and Stargard. When we look for celebrations of Waldstein, the Palace and its rich interior seem faceless. But at the moment that we forget his personage and start to look for allusions to Empire, the person is suddenly vividly present. We see right before us Albrecht von Waldstein, Generalissimo of the Imperial Army, Admiral of the North and Baltic Seas and Knight of the Order of Golden Fleece. At the peak of his career, in the 1620s, he wholly identified himself with the Holy Roman Empire. This was also expressed in the decoration of his Palace in Prague, which he constructed at that time. In this sense, we may say that in the Palace of the most energetic man of his time, impersonality reigned. All the glory went to the Holy Roman Empire and its Emperor.


The Advanced Guides to Czech Monuments differ from other guide books in questions they ask. Why monuments were created, what their messages were, what is legend and what is history in guidebooks and travelogues ...

Why should we ask? The problem of our world is a timelessness, in which the cultural identity of the entire western civilisation is being dissolved, slowly but inexorably. Today, only a few people understand ancient myths or biblical stories which monuments depict, even though every schoolboy knew them by heart not so long ago. The Western world has almost entirely removed narrative history from the school curriculum, without which historical monuments make no sense, their historical context quickly fading into oblivion. The commercial success of pseudo-historical novels demonstrates that ignorance of and indifference to history is spreading so quickly, that soon there will be nothing left to forget. Therefore, we should ask ourselves before it is too late, what lies behind these monuments, what can their forms and stories tell us.

The Advanced Guides to Czech Monuments are encounters with their creators–the architects, sculptors, painters and, last but not least, their patrons. We have tried to build a gateway to the past from archival documents and scholarly research. We wanted to look at the monuments through the eyes of those who commissioned them and those who worked on these commissions.

The Advanced Guides to Czech Monuments are original historical studies which introduce fresh information and viewpoints. We thoroughly studied everything thus far written about the monuments, but our main attention was devoted to the structures themselves.