What is a wife's role in the modern Diplomatic Service? Does she follow her husband wherever his career and the needs of the service take him, as soldiers' wives were once said to follow the drum? Is this role a career in itself - supporting her husband in his embassy or high commission and carrying out social duties? And all this against the back-drop of the security provided by a great power?

Sally James's account is very different. It concerns the changing role of spouses in the Diplomatic Service, with new-found recognition of the vital part they play and appreciation of the wish of many spouses for freedom to pursue independent careers. Sally James and her husband were posted to seven different locations: New Zealand, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), Guyana, Turkey, Ghana, Singapore and Barbados.

Her memoirs offer an evocative account of the interest and excitement of foreign travel, but also tell of the difficulties of being separated from families, the poor communications and physical dangers. This is a book that will be of great interest to those concerned with what the experience of life in the Diplomatic Service was like for the spouses and families who are so rarely mentioned in official histories.