A stunning tale of intrigue in the Sultan's harem from the bestselling author of Daughters of Britannia

Elizabeth Stavely sits in the Bodleian library with trembling hands. Before her is a fragment of parchment which has about it a dusty fragrance of roses, of sadness and great age. Here is the clue she has been looking for, to a story that has been untold for four hundred years. It is as though a voice is whispering to her across the centuries.

An authoritative and entertaining account by one of our most talented writers of the courageous and unusual women who have been the backbone of the British Empire and foreign service.

An account of Katie Hickman's extraordinary year spent amidst the faded glamour of a Mexican travelling circus.

From the first exploratory expeditions into foreign lands, through the heyday of the British Empire and still at the end of the millennium, the foreign service has been shaped and run behind the scenes by the wives of ambassadors and minor civil servants. These are some of their stories.