At 26, Alan Moorehead escaped from the Melbourne suburbs to Europe and the shimmering pre-war days of London and Paris. He was in England when Edward VIII abdicated, in Paris during the last gay days of the thirties, and was sent to Spain on a tanker smuggling petrol. This is not only the story of Moorehead's own adventures, but of his friendship with fellow journalist Alexander Clifford. Moorehead and Clifford were complimentary opposites, professional rivals as well as friends. Together they went through the battles in the Western Desert, the landings in Sicily and France, and the final destruction of Hitler and Germany, which Moorehead was to record in his book of reportage, Eclipse. Their long conversation ended only with Clifford's death. Moorehead was then writing history books; this, his last, is his own history.