Ever the Diplomat: Confessions of a Foreign Office Mandarin

(Paperback)

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In this entertaining and engaging memoir, former ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles lifts the lid on embassy life throughout the world.
For over 30 years Sherard Cowper-Coles was on the diplomatic front line in a distinguished Foreign Office career that took him from the corridors of power in Whitehall to a string of high-profile posts across the globe.

Entering the Foreign Office fresh from Oxford in 1977, he enjoyed a meteoric rise with postings in Beirut, Alexandria and Cairo, Washington, and Paris, and working on Hong Kong, punctuated with spells in London, where the young diplomat had a baptism of fire writing foreign affairs speeches for Geoffrey Howe and Margaret Thatcher.

In 1999, he was made Principal Private Secretary to the irascible Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, providing the book with some of its most hilarious sequences, and his glittering career culminated in a succession of ambassadorial posts as Our Man in Israel, Saudi Arabia and finally Afghanistan.

Ever the Diplomat is his revealing, passionate and witty account of half a lifetime in diplomacy, which is set to become a classic of the genre.

Reviews

It is a modern history from an insiders 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

Written in the style of an adventure story [There are] amusing, often self-deprecatory anecdotes and plenty of serious moments Financial Times

Praise for Cables from Kabul

Brilliant . . . the best account I have read of how post-colonial colonialism actually works William Dalrymple, Observer

A highly readable and witty account by one of our most dynamic and impressive diplomats Daily Telegraph

Author Bio

Sherard Cowper-Coles was born in Kent and educated at New Beacon School, Tonbridge School and Hertford College, Oxford where he read Classics. He entered the Foreign Office in 1977, where he enjoyed a 30-year career, holding a string of high-profile diplomat stations both overseas and in the UK. One of the most respected authorities on foreign affairs in the country, his overseas postings include Beirut, Alexandria and Cairo, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Washington, Paris, Afghanistan and Pakistan.