As a student Margaret Chatterjee read Modern Greats (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) at Oxford where she was awarded an exhibition at Somerville College. The background of her studies was always history. Subsequently she did intensive research on Gandhi's life and thought on which she has published eight books. Opportunities for teaching at university level in several countries brought her in contact with people from many cultures. She became increasingly interested in the life stories of those she met and her recent work recognises the stress on particular events and directions of change which historians perforce deal with in their own discipline, but maintains that it is most important to bear in mind the human interactions which take place between people regarded as ordinary but whom she believes are actually extraordinary.
In my recent book, Sketches from Memory. I recalled some of my own encounters, highlighting the interesting people I was fortunate to meet.
The Sketches are continued in the first part of the present volume, introducing the reader to a wide range of people and places. There is a particular orientation in my recent writings, my belief that the background of history, especially political history, consists of manifold personal histories which in turn are inter- related through the multiform ways in which people encounter each other.
Part II of this volume consists of conversations between senior academics who meet each other from time to time. This continues the theme of stress on the rich content of individual human encounters.
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