Keith Davis, the hapless British ambassador to Tazbekistan – a nation whose human rights record is as bleak as its national dish, plov – found himself constantly overshadowed by his wife Jennifer’s disdain for the local cuisine. Determined …

The embassy received Prince Mark of Bath, a minor royal and trade envoy whose presence was proving tiresome; he had arrived to facilitate the acquisition of a license for Anglo-Brit Oil. Excessively vain – he insisted on travelling with an …

Robert Jackson, a seasoned vetting officer known for his uncompromising nature, arrived in Tazbekistan and made the fifteen-mile walk from the airport to conduct the embassy staff appraisal. But the atmosphere shifted dramatically during a …