Download or read book LOVE DEATH and DEVOTION 2 written by Anton Wills-Eve and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-27 with total page 521 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I wrote the autobiography of my great friend Philip Hargreaves-Scott as he recorded it and told it to me several years ago. But he kept on living and recording so much more of his extraordinary life that after publishing updated and longer books as he told me more of his life I decided to update and split his story into two volumes, of which this is the first, and stop at his 78th birthday on May 10 ,2020. I have used him as narrator just as he was to me. Set in the world from 1942 to today they start with him telling the first part to another person as well as me. It shows how different the 'cold war world' was spiritually, technologically, socially and morally compared to the digitally controlled internet times of today. Then came the globally shattering plague of the covid-19 pandemic and its terrible effect on all of us. However, perhaps most interesting of all are the large number of important and influential people who Philip meets throughout his life. He was born into a family of very famous entertainers and broadcasters during WW2, of which his mother, two aunts, three uncles and his American godfather are among the best known. He becomes good friends with five reigning heads of state, two popes, a US president in office, and, most unexpected, a very close friend of his family who was once king of England. In short he is as at home with people of all nations and walks of life, if he gets on with them. His life is filled with love, terrible sadness, the wonderful gift of being a really brilliant classical pianist, serious mental illness from the age of five, his deep love of God, his family's enormous wealth, years of sadistic abuse at school, and his involvement in several world-wide diplomatic missions from the age of ten. Above all his inability to ignore helping anyone in need, and setting up a charitable foundation from a huge legacy which he inherited at 11, but which he could not touch until he was twenty one, shine out brightest. His life from the age of 19 to almost 32 covers his loves and multi-lingual adventures in Paris, Geneva and Italy, as a journalist at the second Vatican Council, while studying also at three universities, The Sorbonne, Geneva and Pisa. Then followed his years as a war correspondent in Indo-China while also continuing his astonishing missions of mercy, including helping run a refuge for blind orphans in Saigon, and diplomatic espionage, mingled with great personal love and bereavement. The second volume sees Hugh and him continue their philanthropic life and many espionage missions. They particularly enjoy watching their large families grow into teenagers. Much sadness and happiness again highlight this period while his disillusionment with his Church, as more scandals come to light, affecting his own old school and his family, are centred round rescue missions to bring refugees out of Vietnam. This is followed by his final acceptance of his faith in God, despite his terrible mental illness. The wonderful romances and marriages of all his and Hugh's children go on until the digital world changes everything. Pip's narrative style is forced to change towards the end of his memoirs leading to a tantalising finale in the form of many surprise admissions on his part, as covid-19, takes the lives of many of his family and friends, making him see his own worst faults for what they really were. Of Philip himself I will say only this. He is the most kind-hearted, loving, if devious while humorous, mentally tormented, musically gifted, charming and God-loving person I have ever known. All the events in the book really happened, but names have been changed as relatives and friends beseeched me to shield them. But are you wondering who I am as I do not seem to figure in the book? Well that is for you to decide at the end.