A satirical romp through the corridors of the Foreign Office as Patrick Stubbs is posted as third secretary in the British Embassy in Lower Africa. Mayhem awaits him — an absent-minded ambassador, a bullying first secretary with a dipsomaniac wife, and a crush on the police chief's wife!

The author won the 1981 Royal Society of Literature Award for «A Breed of Heroes». In 1983 he was chosen as one of the Best of Young British Novelists.