Abba's accent
From Dr Raphael Eban Sir: May I correct, for the record, two factual errors in Dr Schama's review of Abba Eban's My Country (March 10)? The accent is not " . . . in fact, AngloSouth African via Trinity, Cambridge."
He was born in Cape Town on February 2, 1915, and was taken from Cape Town to London on August 2, 1915, at the age of six months. Though he may have the gift of tongues, I am assured that this had not been bestowed on him at that tender age; and there were no South African accents or influences in his subsequent home environments. In terms of accents, it might have been more suggestive, though ultimately, I think, as pointless, to observe that both he and Lord Hill of Luton were educated at the same South London grammar school (St Olave's).
The other, more trifling error, but a careless one to have been made by a fellow of Christ's (and a historian, at that!) is the attribution of him to Trinity. In fact, he went up as an undergraduate to Queen's, and the outbreak of the '39 war found him at Pembroke, Cambridge.
Raphael Eban 60 Wynnstay Gardens, London W8
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