Sir Robert Bruce Lockart (1887–1970)

Perhaps the most interesting book I've read all year.

Autobiography of a somewhat Bertie Wooster chap with a talent for languages and bonhomie, who finds himeself as a junior diplomat at the end of WWI. The first section is his escape from arbitrary execution as a spy by the Bolsheviks, commuted to exile because he knew how to make friends in high and low places. Then a few years in Central Europe, mostly Prague, as the old empire of Austria-Hungary is dismantled and reformed. Again, it's his talent for simply being likable that carries him so far.

The political observations are erudite and insightful, the characters are engaging such that we genuinely want things to work out well for them. As a view of Europe at its darkest, this gives strong hints as to what can happen at the worst, across all of WWII, the collapse of Jugoslavia and why that became so violent, and even some lessons as to why brexit is such a dreadful idea.

Now to read the rest of his books.… (más)

Sir Robert Hamilton Bruce Lockhart was born in Anstruther, Fife, Scotland, the son of Robert Bruce Lockhart and Florence Stuart Macgregor. At age 21, he went to Malaya to open an additional rubber estate for two of his uncles who were rubber planters in the country. After three years, he was diagnosed with malaria, and returned to Scotland. He joined the Foreign Service and was stationed in Moscow as Vice-Consul. In 1913 he married Jean Haslewood Turner, daughter of Leonard Turner. He was Acting British Consul-General in Moscow when the first Russian Revolution broke out in early 1917. He left before the Bolshevik Revolution, but returned in 1918 to try to persuade the Soviet government to aid in fighting Germany, and was arrested and accused of plotting to assassinate Vladimir Lenin. He was sentenced to death, but was spared in a prisoner exchange. In 1932 he published a book, Memoirs of a British Agent, about his experiences in Moscow.

He published several memoirs in the period between the wars. Also during this time, in 1938, he and his wife divorced.

During World War II, he was director-general of the Political Warfare Executive, which produced British propaganda. He also served as the British liaison officer to the Czechoslovak government-in-exile under President Edvard Beneš. In 1943 he was invested as a Knight Commander, Order of St. Michael and St. George (K.C.M.G.).

After the war, he resumed his writing career. He was also a broadcaster with the BBC. In 1948 he married Frances Mary Beck, daughter of Maj.-Gen. E. A. Beck.… (más)