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Ever the Diplomat

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What to expect

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.

Critics Review

Reviews for Cables from Kabul:

'The clearest, best informed, and most honest account yet of why and how Britain was drawn deeper and deeper into the Afghan war, by the man who knows more about it than just about anyone else. If you want to understand what really happened, you absolutely have to read this book.'
John Simpson

'Unquestionably the most important record yet of the diplomatic wrangling that has accompanied the slow military encirclement of western forces in Afghanistan. Extraordinary' William Dalrymple, Observer

'Vividly portrays the plight of an envoy who really cared about his brief, and felt unable to keep silent about looming failure in a vital region where western intervention has been bungled' Max Hastings, Sunday Times

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

User Reviews

Book 4.0
Narration 4.0
4.0
4.0
A book that gives a peep behind the scenes of the Foreign Office. I found interesting and enlightening. He speaks well of almost all the places in which he served. There are touches of humour here and there but I almost fell of my chair when he tried to draw a parallel between America and Saudi Arabia. I know America has its problems but if given a choice I would not want to live in Saudi Arabia. The author read the book and it was clear and easy to follow, however he seemed to have a bit of depressed tone, perhaps that of a disappointed head master. i guess that's understandable given the places in which he has spent his life.
Liam 28/05/2025

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