In The Eye Of The Storm – Autobiography of Justice Emile Francis Short –

This book recounts my upbringing, narrating the role my father played in inculcating in me the  values of honesty, integrity and hard work. The book describes my life from secondary school  through University and the twist and turns of my career. The main object in writing the book is  to inspire public officials to discharge their functions “without fear or favour, ill will or affection.”  It also seeks to encourage the youth to pursue hard work and do the right thing at all times. It  hopes to discourage the youth from engaging in unethical practices like 419, sakawa, satanic or occultic practices to get rich quickly. Honesty does pay in the long run. The idea of sitting down  to write about myself especially at age 70 was not an attractive proposition. However, I received  encouragement from a number of persons who impressed upon me the need to describe how I  navigated the journey as Ghana’s first Commissioner for the Commission on Human Rights and  Administrative Justice and the challenges I encountered. My faith in Christ and how it has shaped  my career are well articulated in the book.

Justice Emile Francis Short

Justice Emile Short’s memoir contains a powerful account of the life of a man whose local and  international standing has generally beclouded a rich and fulfilling life history immersed in  family, friends, community, and faith. Adopting a fluent narrative tinged with humor and  transitional pauses and asides, this memoir presents a profound excursion into his life marked  by detailed narrative of his experiences growing up in Ghana and abroad, education, love life,  and professional development, and these will afford any reader a rare insight into the life of one  of Africa’s, and certainly Ghana’s greatest sons. While many will find the chronology of his life’s  story easy to identify with, his meticulous narration is truly a testament to the memoire’s overall  richness and the depth of the author’s encounters and world views. Few memoirs open a  window into an author’s life like this piece and the brazen frankness of his accounts illuminates  the author and his lived experiences in the many episodes and phases of his years. The reader  will find the book a lively and highly engaging read – one which piqued my own interest till the  very end. I have hardly read any autobiography this revealing!

Prof. E. Kofi Abotsi  Dean, UPSA Law School

A very well told life story. Lovely in its brevity, but that seems to come at the expense of some of  the important episodes narrated in the book, particularly the “Damascan” transformation from  being a successful conventional elite professional Cape Coast lawyer and hustling in the UK (on  the one hand); to becoming a “born again”/charismatic Christian, occupying high level state  positions/public office, speaking truth” to powerful politicians/slaying political tigers, and  liberating the enslaved.

Prof. Gyimah Boadi

– Paperback Edition