This book is a fascinating first-hand account of intellectual, political, and daily life in two vanished places: Jerusalem before the creation of Israel, and Ethiopia before the Marxist revolution. Ullendorff, who went to Hebrew University in the 1930s and held numerous British government posts in the interwar and war years, counted among his acquaintances Haile Sellassie, S.Y. Agnon, J.L. Magnes, Martin Buber, and many other eminent scholars, writers, educators, and Zionists. He provides numerous eyewitness accounts of notable people and events, including the lost dream of Arab-Jewish accord, British conduct in Palestine, the promotion of Hebrew as a modern language, the Falashas, Ethiopian customs, and the political upheaval in Ethiopia that brought about the fall of Selassie.