I have to say it. Frankly.

I am disappointed in you, my readers.

I deliberately do not clutter up this website with Internet advertising and other distracting marketing gimmicks. I wish to offer you a calm and agreeable intellectual experience.

Nonetheless, in return I hope that you take seriously my occasional recommendations for books and other products and sold by Amazon. The point being that if you buy something from Amazon having been directed there via this site, in principle I earn a few groats each time. Alas, so far the groatfulness has not been terrific.

This is about to change. I hereby steer you firmly in the direction of Parting Shots, a new book by Matthew Parris and Andrew Bryson which takes the improbable subject of Valedictory Despatches from sundry British ambassadors and turns it, thanks to the miracle of FOI, into an elegant and interesting compendium of diplomatic writing.

In a sense this book is like entering a diplomatic Lost World. An exotic period not that long ago when intelligent senior people were encouraged to speak their mind without fretting over political correctness and other rubbish. A wide range of original material is quoted at great length, with interesting photographs and sharp-aged, commentary.

Not that what these very distinguished diplomats had to say in these farewell essays on leaving a diplomatic posting was always sensible or wise. Part of the formidable charm of this book is that it gives all sorts of different examples of the genre, ranging from the marvellous and the perceptive to the patronising, the vainglorious, the almost-racist and the downright ridiculous.

In other words, there’s something for everyone here.

Not least the very last FCO piece of work quoted in full in the book. Namely my own E-gram to London sent from Warsaw in September 2007 which, in a lively parody of the tradition of Valedictory Despatches — by then suppressed by an FCO which under New Labour had quite given up on style and substance alike — listed my FCO Career Oscar Awards in full. That alone is worth the price of admission.

So. You now know what to do.

Click on the link below and (in good time before the Christmas rush) buy lots of copies for your favourite relatives. You won’t regret it: