This is the omnibus of Esprit de Corps, Stiff Upper Lip and Sauve Qui Peut plus a previously uncollected story. Set in various Balkan countries after the war (mainly Yugoslavia and ‘Vulgaria’), the stories deal with life among the diplomatic corps.

The cast of characters include Polk-Mowbray, the British Ambassador, Antrobus, his Head of Chancery, various other members of the British Mission, including Aubrey de Mandeville, Third Secretary, military attachés Dovebasket and ‘Butch’ Bembow, Drage the Embassy butler and other minor characters.

Very much of their time, the stories still retain much wit and charm despite what would be seen nowadays as political incorrectness and racism.

I enjoy them, but I can recall living a similar lifestyle in the early 60s in Cairo and I got told many stories of the expatriate lifestyle in the 40s and 50s by my mother. Others probably won’t care for them because of the attitudes shown, but the stories were meant to be satirical humourous pieces.

El protagonista de estos veinte relatos, es un rancio personaje de la vieja escuela, toda una institución dentro del Foreing Office. Anclado en el pasado, este anticuado diplomático, de bombín y paraguas negro, ha estado destinado, durante los pasados treinta años, en Vulgaria [sic] y otros lugares situados detrás del Telón de Acero. Aunque no podamos decir que todo sea culpa del pobre Antrobus, lo cierto es que él, al igual que todo el cuerpo diplomático, anda siempre metido en dificultades. Agregados militares, ministros plenipotenciarios, attachés de prensa y toda la pintoresca fauna propia de las embajadas desfila por las páginas de este libro complicando y liando aún más las cosas. Y si finalmente consiguen salir airosos, o casi, no cabe la menor duda de que se debe a, como dice nuestro protagonista, una gran firmeza ante la adversidad. ( )

My mother read these stories out loud when I was young: that gentle 50s humour has no age limit. I loved the quirky, eccentric yet ordered world portrayed with such side-splitting charm and decided I wanted to go into the Corps myself. No language skills, no Afrikaans blood and not an ounce of diplomacy made it a non-starter but these tales of Antrobus and Angela and de Mandeville continue to enchant me, over 40 years later.

When I first heard the stories I didn't know Lawrence Durrell was a serious writer - and was intrigued to find him mentioned within the pages of My Family and Other Animals, my setwork when I was 10 - so I didn't wonder at how an author who could be so seriously literary on the one hand could be so effortlessly funny on the other. On rereading one of the stories I discovered a self-reference: he mentions one of the Corps is going to Alexander and has the Alexander Quartet with him, then makes some refernce to 'that fellow Durrell'.

My only regret is that this collection does not contain the inimicable Nicolas Bently illustrations. ( )