THE MAKINGS OF A DIPLOMATIST Book is a thrilling – albeit incomplete – life story, elegantly written. Starting from  the author’s elementary school days at his birth place, Winneba, where he obtained  a distinction certificate at the Standard 7 school leaving Examinations, the Book  takes the reader through the author’s sojourn at Mfantsipim Secondary School  where he became Senior Prefect in his final year through Achimota College, where  he became President of the Students’ Christian Movement (SCM), through Exeter  College Oxford University where he served as President of the West African Students’  Union (WASU) through his years as a Labour officer in Ghana, his training as a pioneer career diplomat followed by a two year stint as Head of Chancery in the  Ghana High Commission in London up to his appointment as Ambassador and  Permanent Representative to the United Nations where he created history by  becoming the First Black African to assume the Presidency of the UN General  Assembly. A discerning factor in this historical account is obviously the author’s  natural leadership endowment which was manifested again later in his accession to  the lay Presidency of the Methodist Church of Ghana (not recorded in the Book).

The greater part of the Book gives an exciting and insightful bird’s eye view of the  author’s exertions at the UN during his tenure as Ambassador and Permanent  Representative on such then burning issues as decolonisation, the Congo Crisis,  Apartheid in South Africa, Cuban Missile Crisis, Arab-Israeli Conflict and the UN  Financial Crisis of 1964 which nearly paralysed the Organisation. These are all issues  of historical interest particularly for research students in international affairs.

The Book ends with the author’s post UN appointment as Foreign Minister of Ghana,  his later incarceration and subsequent release which enabled him to proceed to  London to complete his law studies. Altogether a very interesting and instructive  personal history which makes compelling and absorbing reading.

– Paperback Edition