READING OTHER PEOPLE'S autobiographies should have been a deterrent and indeed was one for too many years. Without having maintained a diary, how could one cope with the mass of detail forgotten over the space of a lifetime? How to make sure you have included all the most interesting events and avoided the banal? How do you get to a mix of narrative and fact and also recollect the thoughts you pondered at the various periods? Who would, in fact be interested in devoting the time to read it all, if the protagonist were not a famous (or notorious) personality, and achiever of renown, a great teacher, or contributor to society? Finally, how to achieve that elusive skill, the art of competent writing, without which all would emerge merely boring.
The more books of autobiography and biography I read, the less confidence did I have in my ability to confront the awesome task. Several years ago, I came across what to me was the ultimate, in a perfectly written autobiography. It was Nicholas Fairbaim's "A Life is Too Short", which moved me so deeply that for the first time in my life, I wrote a letter of grateful appreciation to an author for the enjoyment his book gave me. He, in turn, was sufficiently impressed with my letter, as to invite me to meet him when next in England. I finally did so in October 1992 and Sir Nicholas, as he was by that time, gave me personally and irreverently a guided tour of both the Houses of Commons and Lords, followed by a serious philosophical chat over coffee in the MP's dining room. At one point be encouraged me to emulate him and write my own life story. After meeting him and listening to him in awe, that prospect seemed to me even more daunting.
Neither could I abide the conceited thought that my life's story would have a scrap of interest for posterity. This concept however, was rejected vociferously by Edwin Samuel, the son the first High Commissioner of British Mandated Palestine. In a chance, off-the-street visit to my office in Jerusalem in 1975 and after interrogating me as to what I was doing, what had I done, where had I come from and what was I planning to do for the rest of my life - he began to persuade ME, to engage HIM no less, to do my biography! He made the offer in all sincerity, saying he thought it all very worthwhile recording.