MAVERICK - Jacques Kornbrot

A stirring life history of a unique individual who lived in many countries and mixed with many societies, leading to reflections on foster care, parenting, social services, the building of the new state of Israel and egalitarian communities such as Israeli kibbutzim. The starting point is a three-year old's dramatic meeting with his foster family and their isolated French farm and animals during WW2. Childhood follows his progress through a disaster return to his birth mother and education (or non-education) in Paris and Melbourne, and expertise in running away. Melbourne covers state and private schooling, incompetent psychiatrists, well-intentioned family, and a cafe frequented by petty criminals. He worked  on left wing Israeli kibbutzim (socialist agricultural settlements) and served as an Israeli paratroop officer. He  worked his way from  Tel-Aviv, across Europe and Russia and to Greece where he met Diana in 1963.They loved passionately and parted. Jacques earned a medal defending Israel in the 1967 Arab - Israel war, and worked and promulgated agricultural in Africa, while Diana earned a Ph.D. at Columbia in New York City. In 1973 they married and settled in a North London suburb. Jacques worked in building and landscaping and then found a new metieras a collector who developed a unique house and garden, a veritable work of art. Diana became an academic. They were childless, but Jacques had a maverick influence on his friends' children andwas even a father figure to adult friends. In London. There is meat here for all concerned with the fate of children, who lack adequate birth parents: social workers, mental health professionals and policy makers.  There is meat here for all concerned with why egalitarian and utopian societies fail to live up to their ideals Jacques' experiences provide some possible reason for those lost hopes.

Despite the lamentations of the press and social media, many afflicted with childhood miseries, like Jacques, survive heroically and go on to lead inspiring lives. Kudos to all of them.