Daughters of Britannia -
The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives

by Katie Hickman

ISBN: 0006387802 $11.96
Trafalgar Square

Reviewed by Pam Perraud

This extraordinary book has reached the bestseller lists and been featured on the Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4. It is a special blending of history, biography and adventure woven together to intrigue the reader. The author, Katie Hickman, is a diplomat's daughter who covers the stories of diplomats' wives from 1661 to 1995. She uses letters, journals, clippings and interviews to thread together common themes which show not only the public life but also the private trials.

Today's spouses appear to have an easy life compared to the hardships seen by diplomatic spouses of an earlier time. Consider Ella Sykes, traveling in 1915 to an assignment in Kashgar (Chinese Turkistan) and having to ride side-saddle for days over rugged trails at 14,000 feet, sweltering in the hot sun during the days and freezing in the evenings. Or Mary Fraser who, when journeying from Venice to Peking in 1874, stopped in Hong Kong arriving just after a typhoon had hit and was greeted by the sight of some 10,000 bodies of men, women and children floating in the harbor. While spouses today complain of long airline trips and lost luggage, these women faced month-long journeys by camel, donkey, caravan and carriage in some of the most hostile and remote areas of the world.

Some of the crisis encountered by the wives show that things are never easy, and some things never change: problems with servants, raising children, security, etc. One diplomatic wife, a recent arrival in China, tells of her horror finding her maid adding freshly killed rat to the family's soup for dinner:

There were many wives who never went in the kitchen at all lest their appetite for breakfast be spoiled by seeing a servant using his toes as an efficient toast rack or the soup strained through a greasy turban".

Other parts of the book tell of meeting kings, queens and potentates. But the glamorous side is always balanced by the realities of diplomatic life behind the scenes with regular revolutions, coup d'etats and uprisings. One newlywed wife wrote of being held along with 90 other people for months in the Tokyo Embassy in 1941 where instead of complaining, people got organized. "Real British phlegm coming to the top. We learnt everything from jiu-jitsu to flower arranging to Spanish. Altogether we had a very extraordinary time."

Anyone who has traveled or lived abroad can identify with parts of this book but this is a must read for any diplomatic spouse who will quickly see they would qualify as "Sisters of Britannia."

© 2000 Pam Perraud

Pam Perraud is President of Global Transitions, an international human resource consultancy based in New York. She is a founder of Focus Information Services, London; a former President of WICE in Paris and a founder of Women on the Move, international conferences related to mobility.