For centuries Jerusalem had a sizeable Armenian community, which retained its age-old religious and social traditions. John Rose's family was part of that community, and he paints a vivid picture of their life. He describes his early life and schooldays during the British Mandate after the First World War, evoking the natural beauty of Palestine and the colourful history of Jerusalem and its environs. These descriptions are all the more poignant for being set against a background of rising political tension. There had been ...
Read More
For centuries Jerusalem had a sizeable Armenian community, which retained its age-old religious and social traditions. John Rose's family was part of that community, and he paints a vivid picture of their life. He describes his early life and schooldays during the British Mandate after the First World War, evoking the natural beauty of Palestine and the colourful history of Jerusalem and its environs. These descriptions are all the more poignant for being set against a background of rising political tension. There had been massacres of Armenians during the war, and the threat of Jewish-Palestinian strife grew ever greater until it exploded into reality, culminating in the disastrous Arab-Israeli wars. Mr. Rose gives a graphic personal account of these events, and of the dispersal of Jerusalem's Armenian community following the 1967 war.
Read Less
