DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's Ambassador to the U.S. at the Time of 9/11 and the Iraq War by Christopher Meyer

DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain's Ambassador to the U.S. at the Time of 9/11 and the Iraq War by Christopher Meyer now that's a long title. Unfortunately there's also some hyperbole in it as well 9/11 and the decision to go to war are dealt with in the last third of the book before that is a discussion of day-to-day operations of the British Embassy and a autobiography of Meyer. I'm not too sure why this is considered controversial by the publisher. Meyer does go out of his way to explain Tony Blair and George W. Bush's actions which I suppose are controversial in the sense that Meyer defends them. He thinks that if the two governments had more time to lay out the humanitarian reasons for invasion they would have received approval. I rather doubt this personally. There are some charming anecdotes here but nothing profound. I don't think it's terribly controversial that he thinks his second wife has great legs or the KGB once tried to ensnare him with homosexual ballet dancers. The most critical section of the book talks about his belief that 10 Downing Street attempted to meddle in foreign office affairs. This is interesting from a public policy perspective but isn't worthy of the title.

Mildly recommended for the anecdotes.

Is available through Abebooks.