Excerpts from an interview by Carol Novis with the author, which appeared in the Jerusalem Post supplement.
…When my children were starting to become independent I decided that it was time to learn something new. (The author was bookkeeper for an international import-export firm) I found exactly what I was looking for in the Israeli tour guide course which included courses in history, Bible, religions as well as trips to sites throughout Israel…
…I discovered that history, which I had always thought was boring, was really fascinating. I learnt to understand the lives of people who had lived here before me. Even archaeological sites, which often just look like a pile of stones, come alive when you understand about the people who lived there..”
After graduation Beryl began working as a free-lance tour guide, working with many different types of groups, Jewish and non-Jewish as well as pilgrims from various Christian congregations.
…The people I guided would ask me to recommend a book that would remind them of all they had seen and learnt while in Israel. Of course there are hundreds of books on the Land of Israel, but most are either photographs or weighty historical tomes. I felt that what they really wanted was a concise book that would pick out the places they had visited and put them in historical context, and also discuss subjects such as the Hebrew Scriptures, Canaanites, Israelites, First and Second Temples, Christianity, Islam and the Koran and other terms tourists had heard but knew very little about…
…What motivated me was the interest that people I have guided showed . I wanted to give them something with content, a cross between a guide book and a history book… .I tried to put my enthusiasm into it. I wrote just as if I were speaking and guiding. I feel that my personal style makes the book come alive. It is as if the reader and I are there together, looking at things.
Book Signing at the Jerusalem Book Fair
