ANOTHER WORLD 1897-1917 by Eden, Anthony

Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1977. US first edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, xiv, 175 pages, illus., index.------------------------------------ In his last work of autobiography, the late Anthony Eden, Lord Avon, turned to a period of which he had never written—his early years. The previous three volumes of political memoirs already stand as record of his life's work.By contrast, ANOTHER WORLD is Eden's highly personal account of the formative years that so affected this world statesman: his childhood at Windlestone, his family's country manor; his travels through Europe with his family; his school days at Eton; and finally the devastating experiences at an early age in World War I.Raised in an aristocratic household with a beautiful mother, a titled father whose vast art collection was to be his children's legacy, and surrounded by artists, writers, and politicians, Anthony Eden was schooled for a way of life that was not to be. For this measured, peaceful existence was soon shattered by the reality of war.--------------------------------------The latter part of the book is a detailed and often quietly moving account of his part in that war: as a Platoon Leader in Flanders at the age of eighteen, an Adjutant at nineteen, and a Brigade Major at twenty. At every point he met the brutal horrors of wartime with both youthful vigor and idealism; there was almost no aspect of the fighting he did not personally endure.This poignant narrative is full of illuminating anecdotes and memorable characters, and one which, while rich in texture and charm, gives a remarkable picture of a life which was to vanish utterly in the upheaval of the First World War."It is hard to decide which part .. . to appreciate the more—the first and wholly delightful section in which he looks back at his boyhood; or the second, larger and vivid series of chapters in which he is the very young infantry officer in Flanders.