The Wells of Memory recounts the life of a man who has participated in one of this century's most compelling experiences - the transition of the Arabian Gulf states from extreme poverty to immense riches and the transformation of his birthplace, Dubai, from a small fishing town to one of the world's most important financial and commercial centres. It reveals a lifetime spent in politics, business and diplomacy, and vividly describes a past which has gone for ever and a present which was unthinkable a generation ago.Easa Saleh Al-Gurg is the son of a distinguished merchant and land-owning Arab family which, generations before he was born, had migrated to the Persian coast. Returning to Dubai a few years before his birth the family was ruined by the collapse of the pearl trade. He grew up in grinding poverty, plagued by ill-health. By a combination of good fortune and his own determination he learned English, largely self-taught. After three years spent in Bahrain during the Second World War, he returned to Dubai and joined what later became the British Bank of the Middle East, where he was to remain for many years, the bank's most senior Arab staff member.Later, Easa Al-Gurg set up his own business which has become one of the largest in the Gulf, presently employing over 2,000 people. In 1991 he was appointed UAE Ambassador to London and Dublin and now is once again deeply involved in the politics of the Arabian Gulf and the Arab world as a whole. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990 and was awarded the Order of Zayed II in 1997. Read Less