Parting Shots By Matthew Parris and Andrew Bryson,
Viking, £11.99

The world of diplomacy is a secret cloister. Despatches written by ambassadors and diplomats are not to be read by anyone but a select few in the foreign office. It is assumed that such despatches, were they to be in the public domain, could harm a country’s relations with another country or reveal sensitive information. It is also a world with its own traditions and codes of behaviour and its own rituals.

One such ritual in the British foreign office, prevalent till the other day, was the writing of a valedictory despatch. This was a “most unusual sort of essay’’ in which an ambassador or a head of mission about to bid adieu to the service penned his reflections on the country he was retiring from and on the diplomatic service in general. At its best this essay caught the diplomat in an unbuttoned mood, writing beautifully and with candour. It could be devastating, humourous and always revealed the man behind the mandarin.

The valedictory despatch is now a thing of the past since in 2006 the then foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, exasperated by some very frank remarks in the valedictory epistle of Ivor Roberts, put an end to the practice. One suspects Ms Beckett was carrying out orders from her political masters since Roberts had written about Tony Blair’s “bullshit bingo’’. Most senior and retired members of the British foreign office deplored the decision to do away with the valedictory despatch.

These despatches lay in the archives till the two editors of this volume decided to track them down using the Freedom of Information Act. Among those released the editors were surprised to find parts of one had been blacked out by the Foreign Office censor, using the thickest of marker pens. This was disappointing since it was the valedictory of Robin Fearn who according to The Times obituary was “lucid and funny’’; he had once set fire to his suit by absent-mindedly putting his lit pipe into his pocket.

But what the editors got was quite a treasure trove. From this collection, the editors have selected excerpts, some of them quite long and a few even in extenso. Some of the comments can be withering. One high commissioner departing from Ottawa wrote, “The calibre of Canadian politicians is low. The majority of Canadian ministers are unimpressive and a few we have found frankly bizarre…. Anyone who is even moderately good at what they do… tends to become a national figure… and given the Order of Canada at once.’’

David Gore-Booth who many in New Delhi will remember as the high commissioner in the late 1990s (his father Paul held the high commission in the 1960s) recalled, “At first, social Delhi — a formidable force — queued up to congratulate London on having finally accepted the dynastic principle. Later, as things soured after the 1997 election and the ensuring State visit, socialites wrote off socialists and began taking pot shots at Her Majesty’s messenger. The Indian press is commendably free, but it abuses that freedom to make mincemeats of personalities. I have never held a rein, a gun or a rod in my life — yet I am regularly described here as a hunting, shooting, fishing aristocrat….’’

There are delightful pieces of writing here. The reader can dip into this volume at leisure for pleasure. There hasn’t been a better portrayal of British diplomatic life since Lawrence Durrell wrote about his days in the corps through the eyes of the unforgettable Antrobus.