ACTUELLEMENT ÉPUISÉ

It All Began in the Garden of Eden by Herbert C. Burrow (Paperback, 2012)

With a wealth of experience under his belt working with the British Council and Unesco a career of 40 years unfolds. With 15 postings in 13 countries - Iraq, Algiers, Morocco, Tunisia, London, Czechoslovakia, Brazil, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Ghana and France, you would expect the adventures recounted to be non-stop. As the author spreads the word, encouraging the use of the English language and establishing cultural relations with other countries, the peaceful nature of this task was often carried out under a state of violence and political upheaval. Faced with unusual and dramatic situations such as being held hostage in the British Embassy in Baghdad for the month of May 1941 when a pro-German group of Iraqi Generals staged a coup, he often had to rely on his own initiative. This is just one of many instances which the author narrates with the same genial humour and acute eye for detail. What emerges is an absorbing and valuable portrait of cultural and political life in several interesting countries during one of the most eventful periods of modern history - the Second World War and its aftermath.

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