Daughters of Britannia: The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives (Paperback)

As the daughter of a diplomat, Katie Hickman is well-situated to write about the lives of the women who, from the 17th century onward, have traversed the globe as partners of Britain's ambassadors. These women are more than simply bored socialites, they are indispensable companions, intrepid travellers and, in many cases, exemplary ambassadors for their country. Hickman details the lives of the female ambassadors, from flamboyant characters such as Vita Sackville-West, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and the "bolter" Emma Hamilton, to lesser-known contemporary stoics like Jane-Ewart-Biggs, whose husband, the British Ambassador to Eire, was killed by an IRA car bomb in 1976, and Veronica Atkinson and family, who cowered in the basement of the British Embassy in Bucharest during the 1989 uprising that overthrew the Romanian dictator Nicolai Ceaucescu.

What frequently unites Hickman's wildly different subjects is their loneliness--drawing on letters, diaries and memoirs, she portrays women who had to discipline themselves to adapt (often ingeniously) to unfamiliar cultures, far away from friends and family--many, in particular, were separated from their children, who would be sequestered at boarding school back in Britain--while maintaining an unimpeachable public image. "I shall be obliged to travel three or four days between Buda and Essek without finding any house at all, through desert plains covered with snow, where the cold is so violent many have been killed by it", wrote Lady Mary Wortley Montagu of her treacherous journey to Constantinople in 1716. Almost 300 years later, in 1996, Stephanie Hopkinson wryly itemised the "bizarre qualifications" necessary for daily diplomatic life in a Sarajevo under siege: "Ability to ... apply make-up in the dark; aptitude for bathing in a cold teacup and keeping one's hair/self/clothes clean and uncrumpled as long as possible ... vivid imagination which converts tinned frankfurters, bread and rice into smoked salmon/steak and chips...". Resourcefulness is a common link between the Daughters of Britannia; Katie Hickman has written a fascinating book. --Catherine Taylor

Her last book, A Trip to the Light Fantastic, received extraordinarily good reviews: 'The most ambitiously imaginative sort of travel writing' - Patrick Skene Catling 'Magic is at the heart of Hickman's narrative. Her characters would not seem out of place in the oeuvre of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Isabel Allende' - Sunday Times 'Mexico will not have been portrayed more vividly since Graham Greene's The Lawless Roads... Enchanting' - Geoffrey Moorhouse, Daily Telegraph

A blend of biography, social history, anecdote and memoir. Given the pressures of protocol, etiquette, climate and diet, to say nothing of the risks of loneliness, illness, political upheaval and worse, it calls for a particularly stalwart spirit to succeed as an embassy wife. These ladies, spanning the 17th to the 20th centuries, had it in abundance. Some relished their adventures abroad, while others floundered. Husbands did not always help: one expected his wife merely to 'pay, pack and follow' in his wake. Official advice had its limits too: don't beat the native boys, suggests one Victorian vade-mecum, and you'll be fine. Self-reliance, curiosity and patience were these women's greatest allies - and as a diplomatic daughter herself, Hickman should know. Review by JANE ROBINSO Editor's note: Jane Robinson is the author of Angels of Albion and Parrot Pie for Breakfast: An Anthology of Women Pioneers. (Kirkus UK)

An inside view of the lives and responsibilities of the valiant women who married officers of the British Foreign Service, where rules were rigid but creativity counted for a lot. "English ambassadresses are usually on the dotty side," Hickman quotes Nancy Mitford's view in the introduction to her account of the not-so-glamorous side of embassy life, originally published in England in 1999. Hickman, herself the daughter of an ambassadress, calls primarily on the journals and letters of some remarkable ladies, whether dotty or not, who followed their husbands to posts ranging from Constantinople in the 17th century to Slovakia in the 1990s. Some, like Emma Hamilton (Naples), Isabel Burton (Brazil and Syria), and Vita Sackville-West (Persia) are well known in their own right. Most, like Catherine Macartney and Ella Sykes (posted to the Chinese-Russian border), claimed their places in this history because of their voluminous correspondence. Many were driven to letter-writing by loneliness and hardship, but they managed to convey the thrill and challenge of their exotic surroundings. Other wives corresponded about the opulence and romance of their assignments (one, in particular, was greatly impressed by the coronation of Czar Nicholas I). Whatever the circumstances, the roles of foreign office wives were, until recently, precisely outlined-calling for the ambassadress to be hostess, helpmate, and manager, sometime cook, gardener, nurse, and even den mother to the wives of underlings in the embassy or consulate. The protocols were maintained in spite of revolution, famine, drought, and anti-British sentiment, as noted in Mary Fraser's reports from China in the 19th century. Not the least of the burdens was separation from their children, who were often sent off to British boarding schools thousands of miles from their parents. Hackman divides her chapters by subject (e.g. "Travel," "Social Life," "Contemporary Wives"), successfully weaving material from across the centuries into each chapter. Tales of courage and fortitude-a stiff upper lip, if you will-that should appeal to Anglophiles as well as students of history and women's studies. (16 pp. b&w photos, not seen) (Kirkus Reviews)