About The Book

Gai Eaton describes how, after a strange childhood completely isolated from other children, followed by a Cambridge education and life as an actor and later as a diplomat, circumstances led him at the age of 30 to Islam.

Fascinated by the vagaries of human behavior and the strangeness of human destinies, he has observed the human scene with a novelist's eye and traced the profound changes in attitudes and tastes which have taken place in a single lifetime.

He recounts his youthful adventures with the clear-sight and understanding only possible for someone whom age has freed from the passions which once possessed him.

What makes this work unique is the juxtaposition of hindsight with diary entries made at the time, which gives a quality of immediacy to a true story that includes reminiscences of the diplomatic life and an outline of the Sufi path.

About The Author

Charles le Gai Eaton (also known as Hasan le Gai Eaton or Hassan Abdul Hakeem; 1 January 1921 – 26 February 2010) born in Switzerland was a British diplomat, writer and Sufist Islamic scholar. He was born in Switzerland and educated at Charterhouse at King’s College, Cambridge.

He worked for many years as a teacher and journalist in Jamaica and Egypt (where he embraced Islam in 1951) before joining the British Diplomatic Service. He also provided his services as a consultant to the Islamic Cultural Centre in London.