Stiff Upper Lip

Imagine if P.G.Wodehouse was a diplomat: Durrell's hilarious foreign office sketches are 'sophisticated funny, but wonderful, and bonkers' (

Joanna Trollope) 'A rewarding cocktail based on two parts Wodehouse and one part Saki … So much fun.' New York Times

'Whatever wars there may be and whatever crises, there will still, please heaven, be the diplomatic corps, with its protocol and formalities and a field for humour which I have never seen better used than in these stories.'

John Betjeman

After a lifetime serving that most delightfully British of institutions, the

Foreign Office, Antrobus can't resist musing over old times in Vulgaria at his London club – or should that be cringing … His memories of farcical gaffes and comic diplomatic misadventures star a mad inventor, a tragic cavalry officer, foreign ambassadors, embassy bachelors, a mischievous chef plotting to bring down the empire with garlic …

Celebrated British novelist, travel writer, and member of the real-life family portrayed in

The Durrells in Corfu, Lawrence Durrell experienced the absurdities of mid-century diplomacy firsthand. Lampooning English etiquette, empire, and eccentricity, his charming

jeu d'esprit about the

diplomatic corps is classic satire: but be warned: there's a point where laughter can become painful … 'Antrobus is a delight to listen to, and his stories are wonderfully funny.' Atlantic

'My goodness it is funny.'The Daily Telegraph