What is a diplomat? Can we apply lessons from diplomacy to life in general – from careers to family life, business, politics, decisions on stopping work, prioritising friendship or burying dead bodies? How much of diplomacy is as glamorous as a royal visit, or as dramatic as a coup d’état in Turkey? Leigh Turner​'s latest book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Diplomacy (2023) explores the real thing.

This is not a manual on diplomacy. If you are looking for an explanation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the challenges of the Middle East Peace Process or the theory of diplomatic etiquette, please look elsewhere. But if you seek concrete examples of how diplomats really work with spies; how immunity allows killers to escape justice; how Russia broke up the Soviet Union then nursed its resentment at the consequences; or how to be a good diplomat, or ambassador, join Leigh Turner's online reading event at the Centre for British Studies.

This is an online event. Please register at: events.gbz@hu-berlin.de to receive Zoom details.

Leigh Turner is a writer and former British ambassador to Ukraine and Austria. He grew up in Nigeria, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester, England and attended Cambridge University. In 1979, Leigh hitchhiked through 27 states of the continental US. His diplomatic career took him to Vienna, Moscow, Kyiv, Berlin, Hong Kong, Vladivostok, Miami, St Helena, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Bermuda, Samarkand, Istanbul and Las Vegas. Leigh’s postings included a year as a civilian at the headquarters of the British Northern Army Group in Rheindahlen, Germany, 1980-81; a posting as first secretary (Economic) in Moscow, 1992-95; as Counsellor (EU and Economic) in Berlin, 1998-2002; as Ambassador in Kyiv, 2008-2012; and as Ambassador in Vienna, 2016-21.

In Berlin, Leigh took four years off diplomacy to look after his two children and became a travel writer for “The Financial Times”. You can find the results in his blog. His books include the Berlin thriller Blood Summit, his satirical thriller Eternal Life; his darkly comic Seven Hotel Stories; and the Istanbul thriller Palladium, out in May 2022. His latest book is “the most entertaining diplomatic manual ever”, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Diplomacy, published 2023.