Originally published in 1975, Hands to Play is  a record of Britain’s occupation of Vichy-French Madagascar during the Second World War, an episode not widely publicised; of India’s trauma of Partition and its reflection in the first four years of Pakistan; of the hasty process of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan’s transition from colonial-type administrative status to full independence.  A member of the British Consular Service from 1916–1947, the focus of this book is primarily on the author’s own involvement in diplomatic affairs and on the human element of diplomacy and the inter-personal relationships that were part of this. However personal the approach, the result is a valuable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of British diplomatic history and international relations in the first half of the twentieth century.