Cecil Parrott
Sir Cecil Cuthbert Parrott was a British diplomat, translator, writer and scholar. His son, Jasper Parrott, was born on 8 September 1944.
After studies at Peterhouse, Cambridge, he became a teacher. He joined the Foreign Office in 1939. His diplomatic career culminated with his posting to Prague, where he was the British Ambassador from 1960 to 1966. On retiring from the Foreign Office, he became first Professor of Russian and Soviet Studies and later Professor of Central and South-Eastern European Studies and Director of the Comenius Centre at the University of Lancaster.
Parrott is best known for his translation of Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Švejk. He also translated some of Hašek’s short stories, The Red Commissar. He also wrote a study of Hašek’s short stories
He wrote two autobiographical volumes, The Tightrope and The Serpent and the Nightingale, as well as his biography of Hašek, The Bad Bohemian.
