The dissident leader of Charter 77 writes marvellous penetrating essays about the nature of totalitarian rule and the power of the powerless

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The dissident leader of Charter 77 writes marvellous, penetrating essays about the nature of totalitarian rule and "the power of the powerless". He's imprisoned, and from prison writes his moving Letters to Olga. Then, miraculously, he goes from a spell in prison early in 1989 to directing the velvet revolution from the stage and dressing rooms of the Magic Lantern Theatre in Prague And so to the Castle. No wonder the novelist Milan Kundera, once a critic of Havel's "moral exhibitionism", now describes his life as a work of art. Yet certainly it was always a misunderstanding to see him simply as a writer cast into politics against his will. From an early age, he was a political animal, both in small groups (which he has a knack of convening and animating) and on the larger stage.

His dissident "anti-politics" were not only moral action but also the politics you pursue when ordinary politics are impossible. Some of his writer friends now feel, with benefit of hindsight, that for him politics always came before literature. Moreover, he has made his fair share of mistakes as president. He himself now acknowledges that he might have helped to shape the political party landscape better in the early 1990s. Perhaps he could have done more to prevent the split of Czechoslovakia into Czech Republic and Slovakia, one of the most painful episodes of his decade. Even his admirers in Slovakia resent the fact that his first trip as president was to Germany rather than to Slovakia.

Not all his speeches and interventions have been well-judged, even given the extreme provocation by the country's supremely arrogant, long-time prime minister Vaclav Klaus. It is also true that he now often seems tired and lacklustre - which is not surprising, considering that he has lost half a lung and come close to death three times in the last three years. There is no doubt that his popularity has declined at home. Having held for years at 80 per cent or more, it took a nose dive when, soon after the death of his much loved and admired first wife, Olga, he married Dagmar (or "Dasa") Veskrnova, a beautiful actress some 17 years his junior. He says quite simply that she - rather than the doctors - saved his life, and her warm, human support for him is actually touching to see. But the Czech public, in one of its occasional fits of morality, didn't like it; and many Czechs seem to have got bored with his sermons on morality His rating now hovers about the 50 per cent mark.