In this entertaining and engaging memoir, former ambassador Sherard Cowper-Coles lifts the lid on embassy life throughout the world.

In 1977 fresh-faced Oxford graduate Sherard Cowper-Coles entered the hallowed portals of the Foreign Office. Over the next thirty years he was invariably to be found at the frontline of international diplomacy, either striding the corridors of power at Westminster or jetting from one exotic location to the next. His tasks ranged from the challenging to the bizarre – from speech writing for Margaret Thatcher (who scrawled an emphatic ‘NO!’ over his first effort), to hiding an embarrassing bobble hat from Robin Cook .

With recollections from the last three decades in international politics, taking us right up to Cowper-Coles’s posting to Afghanistan, ‘Ever the Diplomat’ is a revealing and witty account of a unique period in our history. Cowper-Coles reveals what went on behind-the-scenes of Whitehall as we encounter a swindler impersonating Liberian President Charles Taylor, the young, idealistic leader of Syria Bashar al-Assad and Tony Blair in his boxer shorts.

‘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

‘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

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.