Culture Shock & Canapes

War-zones and witchcraft, exotic food and disastrous dinner parties, Culture Shock & Canapes explores the hidden world behind high Embassy walls.

A young Australian girl from London struggles to adapt to diplomatic life among the royal courtiers of Swaziland, in post-independence Zimbabwe and in Angola amid the gunfire of the civil war. She accompanies her husband, the striding KJ, on his African postings together with two English bull terriers and a large, redoubtable African tabby cat. As each country unfolds its challenges and discoveries she shares her delight, her wry humour, and keen sense of the ridiculous. In a darker mood we follow KJ in Somalia during the famine and in Rwanda after the genocide.

The book will appeal to travellers; to those who have worked overseas and coped with culture shock. The writer, a psychologist, delves into history and sociology, revels in the bizarre and includes recipes collected along the way.