The Jerusalem Diary

Keller's record of the artistic, social and political life of Israel towards the close of the 1970s, illustrated with Milein Cosman's remarkable drawings. Hans Keller wrote the Jerusalem Diary in 1977 and 1979 during two visits to the Mishkenot Sha'ananim, a residence for writers and artists. As a senior figure at the BBC and as a shrewd and witty polymath steeped in music, sociology and psychoanalysis, he was better placed than most to record the artistic, social and political life of Israel at a crucial juncture in its history. The Diary, which he described as an `anti-journal', was in the first place a reaction to Saul Bellow's To Jerusalem and Back. But the result is far more than a topical riposte: at a time of renewed turbulence in the Middle East, with another dramatic shift in favour of the right-wing Likud party, it is as sharp and relevant now as it was then. Milein Cosman has selected her own, remarkable drawings.