The Spanish Ambassador's Suitcase: Stories from the Diplomatic Bag - Brossura

After working in the Foreign Office then serving as a Conservative MP, Matthew Parris joined The Times in 1988. He writes two weekly columns for The Times and one for the Spectator, and in 2011 won the Best Columnist Award at the British Press awards. His acclaimed autobiography Chance Witness was published by Penguin in 2003. He is a frequent broadcaster.

Andrew Bryson is a radio journalist working in the BBC's Business and Economic Unit. He frequently works as a producer on Radio 4's Today programme and on Radio 5 Live.

Their first volume of diplomats' despatches, Parting Shots, is published by Penguin.

'We have been, and should remain, in bed with the French. There are only two things you can conveniently do in bed. We have tried sleeping and it is time for the other ...' HM Resident Commissioner, New Hebrides, 1974

Following their acclaimed Parting Shots, Matthew Parris and Andrew Bryson bring together further sharp-eyed, thoughtful and often hilarious despatches from British Ambassadors abroad. Packed with curious and revealing stories (some once thought to be urban myths), including the horse given by the Turkmenistan authorities to John Major which had to be rescued from a Moscow railway and the Spanish Ambassador's odd behaviour in the Algerian desert, this book also contains fascinating glimpses and insights into diplomatic - and undiplomatic - affairs. Showing our representatives abroad at their best and sometimes worst - whether rude or sympathetic, clever or confused - it shines a light on how we British have seen the world ... and how the world has too often seen us.

'Enjoyable' Independent on Sunday

'Marvellous and revealing. These despatches catch a moment just before Whitehall spin doctors took control of communications and when ambassadors abroad lost their autonomy' Evening Standard