Getting Our Way: 500 Years of Adventure and Intrigue: the Inside Story of British Diplomacy

Description

GETTING OUR WAY recounts nine stories from Britain's diplomatic annals over the last five hundred years, in which the diplomats themselves are at the centre of the narrative. It is an inside account of their extraordinary experiences, sometimes in the face of physical danger, often at history's hinge. Be it Henry Killigrew's mission to Edinburgh in 1572, Castlereagh at the Congress of Vienna, Our Man in Washington and the Nassau Deal, or the handover of Hong Kong to China, we can see how Britain has viewed its interests in the world and sought to advance them. Some of these dramatic episodes record triumph, some failure, but all of them illustrate how the three pillars of the national interest - security, prosperity and values - have been the foundation of British foreign policy for half a century. Each story is illuminated by colourful anecdotes and insights drawn from Christopher Meyer's first-hand experience of international relations.

Sir Christopher Meyer served in Moscow, Madrid, Bonn, Brussels, the Foreign Office and in Number 10, before becoming Britain's Ambassador to the United States from 1997 to 2003. Knighted in 2001, he was the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission until April 2009.

He writes well and his tone is engagingly sardonic...an admirable diplomatic primer. -- Piers Brendon * SUNDAY TIMES * This enjoyable book, by Briatin's former ambassador to Washington, consists of nine finely drawn studies of key diplomatic moments in British history. * OBSERVER * The former British ambassador to the US weaves an interesting tale of power, deception, betrayal, espionage, intrigue and cunning...a must-read book for any astute observer of modern diplomacy. * CATHOLIC HERALD *