Ask Me No More [antikvár]

Foreword ISAIAH BERLIN Jenifer Hart's autobiography is a clear and fascinating account of a very varied and interesting life. Not only is it a beautifully written description of the incidents in the life of a distinguished and remarkable woman and her altering opinions, but it is a vivid expression of the outlook and experience characteristic of a large social group in England - something far beyond the author's own family and friends - in fact a valuable contribution, at once most readable and important, to the social and political life of a considerable section of the English nation of the day. At my very advanced age I find it difficult to get through the whole of any new book, but I can truthfully say that this one bound its spell on me from start to finish, and not, I believe, only because it is by one of my oldest and best friends, of whose life and doings I have always known a good deal. The book begins by setting the stage: the affluent, well-connected, professional upper middle class of the turn of the century - her father an outstanding lawyer and public servant, educated at Harrow and Oxford, respected for his ability, integrity, great learning and devotion to the liberal ideals of his day (and ours). Her mother was artistically-inclined, of Scottish aristocratic descent, typical of the strongly conventional view of life and people of her social milieu. Since her father worked for the British Government, on the Reparations Commission in Paris after the First World War, Jenifer was largely brought up in that city - she gives a very vivid, sharply written account of her French school; no one, I believe, has given a better description of the methods, somewhat nationalistically inclined, sternly disciplined, of a unique institution as it was, and may