DIPLOMATIC BAGGAGE by Brigid Keenan

On GoodReads so many people with so many negative reviews about this book, about the author, about the life she has lived as a 'trailing spouse' - one of that peculiar species of mostly women who accompany their spouses to foreign lands for any length of time up to 5 years. Having been both the person who has been posted to one of  my country's high commissions for 2 years, and been a trailing spouse for 1 year in another country some 27 years later, I can fully relate to this wife's life, and at times completely felt her loneliness, her frustration with the local environment and people, her culture shock, the every-few-years-upheaval as she has to say to good bye to those she has formed deep attachments to knowing she has to start all over again in another brand new and alien place. But like most expats, she constantly picks herself up again and gets on with it - it's a big exciting and interesting world out there and I aint going to see it if I sit at home moping!

The cover will tell you that this is not a serious read, and in many parts it is hilarious - not just for the bizarre, strange, commonplace, curious and silly things that happen to Brigid, but for the whacky and self-deprecating writing style she employs - never taking herself too seriously, putting her emotions on the line for all us strangers to read about. And at all times she absolutely has to put on a brave face, in control, having the best time ever. It certainly helps that Brigid began her career as a journalist with writing and reporting coming so easily to her.

As the wife of an EU diplomat she began her expatriate existence in Nepal way back in the early '70s, and I can guarantee you there is nothing at all remotely easy about this little intrepid journey. She has lived in Trinidad, Barbados, Gambia, Ethiopia, Syria, India, with her narrative bookended by a posting to Kazakhastan, possibly one of the last postings they do. 

I loved all the postings she had, each was very different. The ones that have remained with me are their time in Ethiopa during the 1970s when the famine struck, and their time in Damascus in Syria, a place she and her husband adored, resulting in a book about ancient monuments of Syria, unfortunately now unavailable. During all her postings, her domestic life features heavily - her dealings with the staff at their various homes, her parenting of two strong willed and intelligent daughters, her relationship with her husband, the other expat wives. Her gift is being able to make all this very relatalbe, garnering some sympathy from the reader, as well as the laughs, and best of all she never takes herself too seriously. 100% recommend.