it's of tom stoppard's mother's family in what is now the czech republic. father was killed in singapore, his mother remarried a british army officer and moved to england, where the past was rarely mentioned nor enquired about by her playwriting son. 0n the whole, it's a terrible thing to have to say, but i wasn't that interested. i was deeply interested in the english roots which i didn't have. do you feel bad about that, in hindsight? well, i do feel bad about it in hindsight, in the sense that it would have entailed a kind of embracing ofjewish race. even though i'd never actually felt jewish and never thought of myself as a jewish writer. 0n the contrary, i was proud to be an english writer. american dollars have kept us afloat. leopoldstadt is not a directly autobiographical play, but it is a profoundly personal reflection on a culture and a troubled history from which the boy tomic straussler, subsequently called tom stoppard, would emerge. will gompertz, bbc news. that's it. now on bbc one, time for the news where you are. have a very good night. the