JOHN FISHER teaches History at the University of the West of England, Bristol. His previous books include Curzon and British Imperialism in the Middle East (1999), and Gentleman Spies (2002), and he has also co-edited several books and written many journal articles.

• Illustrations Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Constantinople: 'a very wonderful place' Like a Plant Uprooted: Life in Peking 'People who squeeze and people who may be squeezed': Across Mongolia, 1908 Bucharest and St. Petersburg Teheran 1911–14 – 'into the vortex' London, Sophia and Athens, and the 'episode of the floating bag' Tangier – 'a confusion of the East and the West' A 'hardly used genus': First Secretary in Buenos Aires A Climacteric Epilogue Bibliography Index