Brian Barder

Brian Barder's Diplomatic Diary

Brian Barder's Diplomatic Diary offers an insightful and entertaining glimpse of British foreign service life from "one of the most energetic and politically committed diplomats of his generation" (The Guardian, 2017). Spanning two decades from the early 1970s, the diary takes us behind the scenes of Barder's career, from his first overseas posting in Moscow to his head-of-mission posts as ambassador to Ethiopia and Poland and high commissioner to Nigeria. We find him on the spot at moments of historical significance, whether playing cat-and-mouse with the KGB in Cold War Moscow, during the wave of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions that anticipated those taking place today, or being a driving force behind the realisation of British relief efforts to Ethiopia during the nation's devastating mid-1980s famine. Along the way, he rubbed shoulders with some of the most iconic political and cultural figures of the day, including Richard Nixon, Margaret Thatcher, and Muammar Qadhafi; Labour politicians Neil Kinnock and Tony Benn; novelist Chinua Achebe; classical musicians Benjamin Britten, Yehudi Menuhin, Witold Lutos?awski and Dmitri Shostakovich; pop star activist Bob Geldof; media baron Robert Maxwell; double agent Kim Philby; and the Prince and Princess of Wales, among many others. An accomplished writer, Barder authored a popular blog and his 2014 book, What Diplomats Do, was warmly received. The diary is compulsively readable and accessible, seasoned throughout with Barder's astute observations, evocative descriptions, and his characteristically sardonic wit.