All My Yesterdays

Now retired and living on the island of Corfu, 95-year-old British author Lewis here offers a readable but occasionally garrulous and rambling overview of his adventurous life. An aviator in WW I, he flew dangerous missions, surviving the Battle of the Somme and an encounter with the famed ``Red Baron,'' described more fully in his earlier memoir, Sagittarius Rising. After the war, he and others founded the British Broadcasting Corporation, which led to a professional relationship with George Bernard Shaw. Lewis's checkered career as a film director, novelist ( Challenge to the Night ) and Wing Commander during WW II provided him with the opportunity to live in many places, including Hollywood, Tahiti, Italy and Africa. A devotee of the late Greco-Armenian mystic Gurdjieff, Lewis devotes the latter portion of his memoir to a description of Gurdjieff's philosophy and its impact on his life. (July)