When politics and policy clash, politics always win. And in this case, senior diplomat Percy Williamson loses. At odds with Canadas new Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Crowley, Percy draws an overseas assignment as ambassador to Bharalya, a small country in Asia that recently discovered a big cache of oil. When Percy and his wife Marilyn arrive in Bharalya they are quite unprepared for the bizarre experiences they will share and the eccentric people they will meet. Theres the king whos addicted to collecting medals from foreign governments, a junior diplomat who impersonates his own foreign minister, a visiting minister caught by the press in a brothel, and a travel-averse diplomat reduced to jelly by his one and only trip outside the capital. Diplomatic conflicts almost turn into wars over golf tournaments, and Percys and Marilyns duties include attending flower competitions, Christmas parties, national day celebrations, and events with rented camels. And regularly erupting at the most awkward moments is the dreaded Bharali amoeba, scourge of the diplomatic intestinal tract. But all frivolity is set aside when the government threatens to close down the embassy; the Foreign Service springs into action, with surprising results.

"In this book of extraordinary journeys and epochal encounters, Jonathan Wright traces the ambassadors' story from Ancient Greece and Ashoka's empire in India to the European Enlightenment and the birth of the nation state. He shows us Byzantine envoys dining with Attila the Hun, thirteenth-century monks journeying from Flanders to the Asian steppe, and Tudor ambassadors grappling with the chaos of Reformation. He examines the rituals and institutions of diplomacy, asking - for instance - why it was felt necessary to send an elephant from Baghdad to Aachen in 801 A.D. And he explores diplomacy's dangers, showing us terrified, besieged ambassadors surviving on horsemeat and champagne in 1900s Beijing."--BOOK JACKET.

A distinct symbol of the desert and the Middle East, the camel was once unkindly described as “half snake, half folding bedstead.” But in the eyes of many the camel is a creature of great beauty. This is most evident in the Arab world, where the camel has played a central role in the historical development of Arabic society—where an elaborate vocabulary and extensive literature have been devoted to it. In Camel, Robert Irwin explores why the camel has fascinated so many cultures, including those cultivated in locales where camels are not indigenous. Here, he traces the history of the camel from its origins millions of years ago to the present day, discussing such matters of contemporary concern as the plight of camel herders in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, the alarming increase in the population of feral camels in Australia, and the endangered status of the wild Bactrian in Mongolia and China. Throughout history, the camel has been appreciated worldwide for its practicality, resilience, and legendary abilities of survival. As a result it has been featured in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Poussin, Tiepolo, Flaubert, Kipling, and Rose Macaulay, among others. From East to West, Irwin’s Camel is the first survey of its kind to examine the animal’s role in society and history throughout the world. Not just for camel aficionados, this highly illustrated book, containing over 100 informative and unusual images, is sure to entertain and inform anyone interested in this fascinating and exotic animal.

In this page-turning odyssey, a mother on a mission travels the globe — from Bedouin camps in the Middle East to Amish farms in Pennsylvania to camel-herder villages in India — to obtain camel milk, which dramatically helps her son’s autism symptoms. Chronicling bureaucratic roadblocks, adventure-filled detours, and Christina Adams’s love-fueled determination, Camel Crazy explores why camels are cherished as family members and hailed as healers. Adams’s work uncovers studies of camel milk for possible treatment of autism, allergies, diabetes, and immune dysfunction, as well as ancient traditions of healing. But the most fascinating aspect of Adams’s discoveries is the gentle-eyed, mischievous camels themselves. Huge and often unpredictable, they are amazingly intelligent and adaptable. This moving and rollicking ode to “camel people” and the creatures they adore reveals the ways camels touch lives around the world. Includes users’ and buyers’ guides to camel’s milk

The Ambassadors is a 1903 novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in the North American Review (NAR). This dark comedy, seen as one of the masterpieces of James's final period, follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe in pursuit of Chad Newsome, his widowed fiancée's supposedly wayward son; he is to bring the young man back to the family business, but he encounters unexpected complications. The third-person narrative is told exclusively from Strether's point of view.

This book discusses the biology, breeding, care, and management of camels, with a focus on camels from Pakistan. The book provides a sound understanding of how to look after camels, their senses, behavior, and adaptations. The chapters describe the practical aspects of camel husbandry such as how to maintain their body condition, feet, and cleanliness. It covers the types of feeds, feeding methods, and their needs at different stages of life. The book provides a detailed account of camel husbandry, breeding, and reproduction. It is meant for camel breeders, veterinarians, livestock advisers, students, and researchers working on animal sciences, camel rearing, feeding, and management. FEATURES Includes information about different species of camels present in Pakistan and their importance to humans Discusses the nutrition and feeding of camels, the medicinal qualities of camel milk, and the peculiar immunity-enhancing properties of their nutritious meat Describes the features of camels that help them survive and thrive in deserts and make them the animals of the future Covers the range of unique products obtained from camels and their economic value Explores the management, types of diseases in camels, causes of their spread, their control, and therapeutic measures for successful and productive farming

In 1936 and at just 17years old, Yusuf Abbas murders two desert travellers for their camels and worldly goods. In 1950 and now calling himself Sheikh Yusuf Abbas, he murders a British Ambassador and the members of a British oil exploration company, shortly afterwards, when a neighbouring Sheikh and his family are poisoned, he merges their lands to create the Sabba Oil empire. On the other side of the world, Richard Neilson, a sickly 14-year-old is devastated when his beloved father (whilst working in Egypt) is decapitated by Arab fanatics. He vows to avenge his death. Two years later, and having thrown himself into a gruelling fitness regime, he enlists in the army and eventually wins selection into the SAS. Najeeb Abbas (Yusuf’s son) is a malevolent, unremorseful psychopath who, upon leaving Cambridge University with a degree in nuclear physics, persuades his father to fund a desert research facility to tackle global warming. But beneath the façade, his intentions are much darker and the consequences of his actions prove fatal for his remorseful father and potentially devastating for the Gulf of Mexica and Canadian Cantrell’s oilfields. Fate throws these two polar opposite lives together, and once again Richard’s family is threatened by Abbas’ deep-rooted intentions to destroy. Will he succeed? Or will Richard finally get the revenge he’s spent most of his life planning? Discover for yourself in this dark, gritty, and electrifying world of Al-Qaeda, terrorist conspiracies, SAS heroes, M16 agents, suicide bombings, assassination plans and desert ops – where revenge stops at nothing.

“Apartheid South Africa was on fire around me.” So begins the memoir of Career Foreign Service Officer Edward J. Perkins, the first black United States ambassador to South Africa. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan gave him the unparalleled assignment: dismantle apartheid without violence. As he fulfilled that assignment, Perkins was scourged by the American press, despised by the Afrikaner government, hissed at by white South African citizens, and initially boycotted by black South African revolutionaries, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu. His advice to President-elect George H. W. Bush helped modify American policy and hasten the release of Nelson Mandela and others from prison. Perkins’s up-by-your-bootstraps life took him from a cotton farm in segregated Louisiana to the white elite Foreign Service, where he became the first black officer to ascend to the top position of director general. This is the story of how one man turned the page of history.