Storm Signals

Toronto: Macmillan of Canada A Division of Gage Publishing Limited BOOK: Previous Owner Markings/Ex-Library; Front, Rear Fixed Endpapers Pulled From Removal of Jacket Cover; Front Free Endpaper Pulled From Removal of Pocket, Sticker; Spine Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Spine Moderately Cocked; Edges Lightly Soiled; Slight Yellowing Due to Age. DUST JACKET: Moderately Creased; Lightly Chipped; Moderate Fading of Spine Due to Sun Exposure; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. Charles Ritchie, Author of The Siren Years, An Appetite for Life, and Diplomatic Passport. SUB-TITLE: More Undiplomatic Diaries, 1962-1971. JACKET PHOTO OF CHARLES RITCHIE AND JOHN F. KENNEDY: Canapress Photo Services. JACKET DESIGN: Michael van Elsen. CONTENTS: Preface; Washington, 1962-1966; London, 1967-1971; Diplomatic Attitudes; Epilogue. SYNOPSIS: "We diarists are peculiar people,..." states Charles Ritchie in his Preface. "We write things down, awkward things sometimes, indiscreet things, things better forgotten. We should be banned. No doubt we soon will be..." His many admirers will be relieved to see that, before this dire fate befalls all diarists, Charles Ritchie has written Storm Signals, the fourth volume of selections from his delightfully wise and witty diaries. In the first three volumes, The Siren Years, An Appetite for Life, and Diplomatic Passport, we follow him from his youth in Halifax and Oxford to his years as a young diplomat serving with the Canadian Embassy in wartime London, and we watch him climb the rungs of the diplomatic-service ladder through postings in Paris, Ottawa, Bonn, and the United Nations in New York. Now, in Storm Signals, we see Charles Ritchie, the seasoned diplomat (seasoned but never stuffy), in his last two major postings--as Canadian Ambassador to Washington and as Canadian High Commissioner to London. Here is the inimitable Ritchie in the Washington of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, wryly reflecting the stormy family relationship between the American and Canadian governments as he writes of being "shooed" out of President Kennedy's office, or of watching transfixed through a window as President Johnson vents his fury on a mild-mannered Lester B. Person. We see him, too, carrying out the social functions of High Commissioner in London with a certain amiable self-mockery, cutting a ribbon here, touring a dockyard there, and constantly a bit embarrassed by the length of the "hearse" he has been given for transportation. But, as ever, it is the wide variety of people and events in his everyday life that engages Charles Ritchie's lively attentions and dry wit--with results that are often extremely amusing and always vintage Ritchie. "Encounter with a leading name-dropper," he writes of an acquaintance he meets at a party. "He began in top form, firing two governors general, the Leader of the Opposition, a French duchess, and John D. Rockefeller across my bows and all but sinking me." Luckily for his readers, Charles Ritchie is unsinkable. Charles Ritchie has had a brilliant career in Canada's diplomatic service. Since his retirement, he and his wife divide their time between Ottawa, London, and Chester, Nova Scotia, while he works on further selections from his diaries. - and - In Storm Signals Charles Ritchie, in his posts as Canadian Ambassador to J. F. K.'s and L. B. J.'s Washington and as High Commissioner to London, turns his shrewd intelligence and wit once again on the worlds of diplomacy and high society in which he finds himself. The result is vintage Ritchie. It will delight both his many admirers and those who have not read his previous books.. Hard Cover. Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library.