Inside the Foreign Office - Hardcover

This study presents the full picture of how the Foreign Office works, who the key people are making it work, how politicians have taken charge of it, and above all how it has responded to the needs of the country and when it has failed to do so. The book is based on 150 interviews with politicians and senior diplomats. The author reveals how Mrs Thatcher manoeuvred Gorbachev into visiting Britain first, the inside story of the Rhodesia Conference and how Lord Carrington reached breaking point, the curious comma omitted by a typist which divided Reagan and Thatcher at Camp David, and the back-stage manoeuvres leading to a spy swap. In particular he provides details of the extraordinary influence exercized by Mrs Thatcher's foreign affairs adviser, Sir Charles Powell, and of the clashes between No. 10 and the FO - a battle which raises disturbing questions about the democratic accountability of the system.