An Autobiography

Abba Eban's autobiography. He begins his memoirs by describing his childhood in South London, his days as a brilliant young scholar at Cambridge, his early service to Zionism as the assistent to Chaim Weizmann, and his vital role as Permanent Delegate to the United Nations during the War of Independence and the establishment of the State of Israel. Drawing on his experiences as Ambassador to the United States and as Minister of Foreign Affairs, he then tells of the climatic hours spent during the crises of Suez, the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War.

Outwardly, everything seemed normal. Millions were living their boyhood years at the same familiar rythm. No drama disturbed the even flow.
The scene was London in the nineteen-twenties and thirties: more precisely, a small sector of the endless metropolitan sprawl, bordered by home and school south of the Thames. It was a grey district poised narrowly between austerity and squalor. But both home and school had detached themselves from their local condition as if determined to have nothing to do with their own environment.