In his memoir To the Castle and Back, which Portobello is to publish on June 1, the former Czech President Václav Havel reveals the unlikely power of Israeli diplomacy. On his return from the famous 1990 state visit to Israel when diplomatic relations were established after the Communist years, he went straight to a ball where he danced with actress Dagmar Veškrnová, “invited myself back to her place for coffee”, and later married her.