The author describes his activities as a sportsman, his involvement in the London literary circle, and the beginnings of his career as a poet

Elie Kedourie has been variously described as an angry young man, a sceptic, a conservative, an Oakeshottian, a pessimist, an imperialist, a Zionist, an anti-Zionist, an anti-Arab, and lately even starry-eyed about imperialism - all labels which attempt to categorize the scholar but reveal nothing about the man or his work. This little book is not a biography. It is a collection of essays evaluating his work and his legacy to scholarship. The various contributors, ranging widely in interest and occupation, have indicated their relationship with him in their essays. Of his own work, three pieces are included. One of his last essays, 'The Jews of Babylon and Baghdad', is published here for the first time.