Book description
In this entertaining and engaging memoir, former ambassador Sherard
Cowper-Coles lifts the lid on embassy life throughout the world.
For over thirty years Sherard Cowper-Coles was on the diplomatic front
line in a career that took him from the corridors of power in Whitehall
to a string of high-profile posts around the world.
Entering the Foreign Office in 1977, he took up postings in Beirut,
Alexandria and Cairo, Washington, Paris, and Hong Kong, his
globe-trotting punctuated with spells in London, where the young
diplomat had a baptism of fire writing foreign affairs speeches for
Margaret Thatcher.
In 1999, under Prime Minister Tony Blair, he was made Principal Private
Secretary to the irascible Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, providing the
book with some of its most hilarious sequences. His career culminated in
a succession of ambassadorial posts as Our Man in Israel, Saudi Arabia
and finally Afghanistan.
'Ever the Diplomat' is his revealing and witty account of half a
lifetime in diplomacy. 'Written in the style of an adventure story…
[There are] amusing, often self-deprecatory anecdotes… and plenty of
serious moments' Financial Times
'It is a modern history from an insider's perspective… with a
self-effacing tone and dash of wit' The Independent on Sunday
'A fascinating picture of a career in which sipping martinis under
chandeliers is a less frequent occurrence than strapping on a flak
jacket' Country Life
'Cowper-Coles writes extremely well… Mostly fun and often acute' Sunday
Times Sherard Cowper-Coles is one of the most respected authorities on
foreign affairs in the country. He has held a string of high-profile
diplomat posts, both in the UK and overseas, most recently as the
British Ambassador to Kabul and the Foreign Secretary's Special
Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
