Birthday festivities for writer Mátyás Sárközi, Member of the Friends of Hungary Community, were hosted by the Petőfi Literary Museum. The author of more than twenty books and more than a thousand feuilletons is celebrating his 80th birthday this summer. The Hungarian PEN Club; the Hungarian Society of Writers, Critics and Literary Translators; Publisher Kortárs; and the Hungarian Academy of Arts organized his greeting, with the toasts by Gergely Prőhle, Director of the Petőfi Literary Museum, János Szentmártoni, President of the Association of Hungarian Writers, Géza Szőcs, President of the Hungarian PEN Club and György Ferdinandy, writer and member of the Hungarian Society of Writers, Critics and Literary Translators. Actor and poet Balázs Lázár contributed by reciting selections from both the author and other prominent Hungarian writers. 

Mátyás Sarkozi was born in Budapest, in 1937. He has been living in England since December 1956. He had his university studies at the University of London (BA Hons). He is a writer, journalist and reporter. He worked for the BBC for 35 years. He is the author of over 20 (mostly Hungarian) books. His latest book, the monograph about his father, has been published for the Festive Week of Books, and is titled Mi erősebb: a dal vagy az orkán? – Sárközi György életpályája.  His literary work was recognized with a József Attila Prize in 2004, and in 2013 he received the Commander’s Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of Hungary.