I seem to be going back over old BBC programmes...but never mind: here goes.

In 1983 I was in Prague to make a feature about Franz Kafka who had been born there 100 years before. In 1983 he was still banned in Prague, and much admired elsewhere, though not everywhere else. Since I knew this I had already done a lot of the interviews I would need with Kafka experts in the UK, but then went to Prague anyway. 

I had to get 'visa support' from the Academy of Sciences to get in and register with the Centre for Foreign Journalists on arrival. I arrived and registered. The man at the desk, his elbows over some telexes from me (telexes? Well, it was 1983), said he didn't know who I was or why I was there. But I sent you those (pointing) and asked to have interviews arranged with X and Y and Z. Oh dear, he said. They're not here. They've gone away. Where?, I asked. To Finland, he said. Fishing. What, all of them? Together? Yes, he said. Odd, isn't it.

I told him I needed to interview someone about Kafka, preferably someone who could speak English which sounds better than a voiceover, although if necessary that could do too. Well, never mind all that...

Later I decided to see what would happen if I tried to borrow some Kafka form the Charles University Library. So I got someone's ticket (brave of her to lend it to me) and went to look up the catalogue. All Kafka's works were listed there. So I asked to borrow The Trial and The Castle. I'm sorry, said the librarian. We don't actually have any of the books. They've all been stolen. What, all of them? I'm afraid so, she said. Odd, isn't it.

Actually, I believed her. If  books are stolen, even if they are passed from hand to hand, fewer people will read them than if they are in a library, and the authorities can always say, as they were saying indeed, Don't blame us. Blame those thieving hooligans.

Today I went to the British Library. I had reserved Peter Wright's Spycatcher. I discovered you can only read that in the Music and Rare Manuscripts room. When I arrived and presented my card the librarian couldn't find the book...at first. Then he look on the computer and saw what it was I wanted. Oh, I see, he said. Special Material. He went to get a key and disappeared.

When he came back he told me I could only sit at one of some 10 designated seats, and there was a slip in the book which instructed me that I should not leave the book unattended FOR ANY TIME AT ALL. This meant that if I wanted to go to the loo or get a coffee I had to take the book back and let him look after it until I returned. Meanwhile my readers card was held hostage.

So I asked the librarian what constitues Special Material. Well, he said, old manuscripts and rare books are precious. But this was published in 1987, I said. Nothing rare about it at all. Well, he siad, some books are deemed..er...restricted. I looked up Spycatcher on my mobile and saw that it is available at Amazon (boo! down with Amazon - see earlier posts). So I asked the librarian why there was  a restriction placed on this book. No idea, he said. Odd, isn't it?