Hana Havlová was born in June 1949 and grew up as the only child in Kutná Hora (Central Bohemia). Her father was a judge assessor and lawyer, her mother worked most of her life in the travel agency Čedok. Her parents provided the narrator with a good background for intellectual development as they enabled her to learn foreign languages and attend hobby groups (music, religion, etc.). After graduating from the grammar school in Kutná Hora, she continued her study at the University of Economics in Prague, graduating in 1972 in foreign trade. Shortly then, she began working as a consultant at the Rapid Foreign Trade Agency, where she worked until 1989 (finally as a spokesperson in the PR department). During her career, she participated in the preparation of various foreign exhibitions to promote Czechoslovak products and services. This was made possible to her even though she was not a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and refused to cooperate with the intelligence administration of the Czechoslovak People’s Army. Even during the so-called normalization period, she maintained relations with the Western world [“normalization” was essentially an abnormal period after the suppression of the reform efforts of 1968 and the invasions of Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia in August 1968]. After 1989, she devoted herself to travel, economic diplomacy, and civil service (even, for example, in NATO structures). She is a widow and has one adult daughter.