In his first book, The Siren Years, the public was introduced to Charles Ritchie as a young diplomat serving with the Canadian Embassy in wartime London. In Diplomatic Passport, we follow his career as he climbs the rungs of the diplomatic-service ladder – as an advisor to the Canadian Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1946; as a Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Paris, where his friends celebrate Ritchie Week – to the city’s surprise; as Assistant, Deputy, and Acting Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs in Ottawa; as Canadian Ambassador to Bonn, where he finds himself reciting Little Red Riding Hood in German at a state dinner; and as Permanent Ambassador of Canada to the United Nations.
