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Undiplomatic Activities

By Richard Woolcott

Published by: Scribe

More about the book...

Armed with a sound mind, a good tailor, and a strong liver, Woolcott spent over four decades in the peculiar world of Australia's foreign affairs. He served as a diplomat in Africa and Asia, as well as at the UN, and worked as the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in that strangest of countries, Canberra. He has already penned a serious book about his life and views, Hot Seat; his aim in Undiplomatic Activities is to provide a procession of anecdotes about life on the ambassadorial road.

He finds plenty of humour in dysfunctional functions, dubious travel arrangements and the myriad problems of translation. Woolcott does, however, have some serious views on Iraq, although his main conclusion on the matter - that elected governments should leave vicious tyrants to the diplomats - leaves a slightly sour taste.

- Derek Parker

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