Available Now
introduction
Leslie Fielding read History at Cambridge, where he is an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, and Persian at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
He joined the then Foreign Service in 1956, working initially in Tehran and (briefly) Singapore, before being put in charge of the British Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 1964 to 1966.
His subsequent diplomatic career took him to Paris, in the political section; Brussels, as a director in the European Commission; Tokyo, as EU Ambassador; and back to Brussels, as Director-General for External Relations.
He has been a Visiting Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex.
He is married to the medievalist, Sally Harvey; they have two children.
Sir Leslie was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1988.
Latest Publication
'Kindly Call Me God': The misadventures of 'Fielding of the FO', Eurocrat Extraordinaire and Vice-Chancellor Semipotentiary
Not Diplomatic memoirs, but a professional autobiography-by-anecdote, Leslie Fieldings' latest book is now available, with a Preface by Lord Hannay of Chiswick.
"As the reader is taken on a fast canter round this distinguished career course, there are many laughs and no yawns... We hear the voice of a serious scholar and public servant and cease to be surprised at his success in the world he so engagingly mocks." Country Life, July 15, 2009