An original, compellingly told story of women's fight to represent their country abroad in the face of opposition from the men of the Foreign Office

A lustrous book which traces the often agonising rise of women in the Foreign Office and mercilessly dissects the resistance they encountered Peter Hennessy A path-breaking account, from one of our leading and most original historians of modern Britain, of how the male-dominated world of British diplomacy gradually - and grudgingly - let professional women in. It should be read by everyone who works in the Foreign Office, or in British embassies overseas, and by anyone, anywhere, who is concerned about the part that women have played, do play and should play, in the making of foreign policy and the conduct of international relations David Cannadine McCarthy has produced a sometimes humorous but often dispiriting picture of what women who had set their sights on foreign posting continued to experience, long after they had won a toehold in other fields Literary Review Helen McCarthy has conducted a lot of valuable interviews for her book and researched assiduously Evening Standard A fascinating account of the manoeuvres of the leaders of the Foreign Office to prevent the admission of women to its diplomatic and consular services Spectator The women are striking, the trajectories of their often brief careers compelling Observer This pioneering study gives a penetrating, readable and most welcome introduction to a neglected set of issues, and will be gratefully received by a wide readership Times Higher Education Supplement

Helen McCarthy is Senior Lecturer in History at Queen Mary, University of London. She studied as an undergraduate at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, and as a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University. She worked briefly for the think-tank Demos before embarking on doctoral studies at the University of London. Her first book, The British People and the League of Nations (Manchester University Press, 2011), explores the vibrant popular cultures of internationalism in inter-war Britain. Before taking up her post at Queen Mary, Helen was a Research Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. She lives in London with her husband and two daughters.