John
Harrison
Softback £11.50 & £3.00 P & P UK
How to order
By Post: Mail to Lynn Davidson, The Memoir Club, 34 Lynwood Way, South Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE34 8DB cheque payable to Lynn Davidson.
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He carved out his own route across the world with postings to Burma, Laos, Ethiopia, Turkey, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Pakistan and finally as High Commissioner in Mauritius. All these assignments were interspersed with important jobs in London in both the Cabinet Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
He was witness to a number of military coups and their aftermath. Political drama was never far away and living conditions were often difficult. Amusing and untoward incidents abounded, as did opportunities to meet people from different cultures and travel to exotic and rarely visited parts of the world. Personal and family life are woven inextricably into his various professional roles, including the huge support received from his wife Jenny.
Since retirement in 1997, he has lived in Hampshire enjoying gardening, golf, more travel and family life.
INTRODUCTION
When my three children all got married within the next few years, and then grandchildren started coming along, I began to realise that none of them had much idea about my early life apart from snippets picked up in random family conversations. The children had no choice but to blend into the slightly unusual way of life my wife, Jenny, and I were leading. Being largely overseas meant that they did not have the firm roots that other UK-based families had.
The same had applied to me, having been born into a diplomatic family.
We seemed to be regularly packing up and on the move. Not that I minded too
much. I enjoyed the travel opportunities and I was fortunate to have the
fallback of a welcoming wider family based mainly in Sussex.
Our four grandchildren were born within five years of each other. When
they were young I had great fun reading and telling them bedtime stories. I
invented a little pink pig that had strayed into our garden and had various
meetings and adventures with the likes of Peter Rabbit (we had a vegetable
area), Squirrel Nutkin and the Gruffalo with his mouse (who all lived in our
small piece of woodland). I was always being asked for more, but I was running
out of ideas and they were getting older.
It then occurred to me that I had actually myself had some quite exotic
real-life adventures around the world, which might in due course be of interest
to them. So I started writing up some of my early life experiences, mainly
travels, but without really thinking at the time that this could develop into a
full scale memoir. I had periodically kept a diary, and indeed quite a detailed
one of travels to interesting places. I then began to join the dots; boarding
schools, university life, holiday periods with kind relatives, joining the
Foreign Office and first posts overseas. There seemed to be plenty of material
from Burma, Ethiopia and Turkey worth writing about, not to mention what
happened thereafter.
There would be a long road ahead requiring some detailed
research and memory racking. But with more leisure time and long winter
evenings it seemed feasible. So I persevered and dug deeper into my official
life. Lockdown from coronavirus in early 2020 helped to increase the momentum.
I received encouragement from friends and former colleagues, particularly Sir
Jeremy Thomas, my ambassador in Luxembourg, and Sir Nicholas Barrington, my
boss in both London and Pakistan.
Fortunately my mother had kept and returned to me most of the letters I
had written home from overseas as well as Jenny’s very full newsletters.
Between them they contained first-hand accounts of, and comments on,
activities, events, visits and so on. They also provided valuable source
information on names of places and people plus dates which might otherwise have
become a little hazy. It took time sorting out the ephemeral from the more
substantive items, which often then had to be related to the wider local
context. But it was absorbing work, and a far cry from the original bedside or family
stories.
Special thanks go to my wife, Jenny, who has been such a support since we first met at a UN Conference in Geneva in 1966. She has had to put up with periods of hardship and difficulty, both in England and overseas but, as will be apparent, we have shared many good times as well. She has helpfully remembered for me some of the stories and incidents I have described and, where necessary, corrected points of detail.
I would also like to thank my brothers Bruce and Michael, and also my
cousin Bina Arbuthnott, for letting me describe some of the adventures we had
together, particularly in the early part of my life. I am grateful too to
friends and former colleagues who have encouraged me to tread this path.
More special thanks of course go to my three children James, Carolyn and
Sarah who have shared the trials as well as some of the high spots of this long-running saga since they arrived on the scene. I have written this partly for
them and their respective spouses Doreen, Dominic and David.
Nor do I wish to forget my parents who started me on this journey into diplomatic
life and supported me along the way. I was never going to match the
distinguished career of my father, Sir Geoffrey Harrison. A pity he did not
put pen to paper in his retirement apart from a few lectures. But I may have
derived some inspiration for this book from my mother who, in her nineties,
published some memoirs called On the Fringe under the name of
Katherine Harrison describing her
experiences living in the realms of Hitler and Stalin.
REVIEW
I couldn’t put it down. So well written
Really enjoyed your book. You write so well and fluidly. Some amazing travels
Greatly enjoyed reading your book .... gives helpful insights into the life of a diplomat
Most interesting .... a life lived to the full and often at full tilt
I was instantly hooked. Especially enjoyed reading about all your adventures
A good read
