"You’re good at languages. That means you go into the Diplomatic," pronounced the father of the teenage Michael Burton.

And so began a diplomatic career, ranging from Khartoum to the Khyber Pass, that encompassed a wide variety of experiences: resolving tribal uprisings among Gulf Arabs, helping from Paris to achieve Britain’s entry into Europe, smoothing the path to a united Germany in Berlin after the fall of The Wall, and serving as British Ambassador in a post from which he had been banned by the Foreign Office twenty-eight years earlier.

Sir Michael Burton’s fascinating memoir describes interactions with four British prime ministers, an American president, an Arab king and a master Soviet spy – not to mention facilitating royal visits to several of his postings, which displayed Britain’s ‘soft power’ in action.

In the process, Burton vividly illustrates British diplomacy at work, and reveals an aspect of Britain’s governance that rarely sees the light of day.