Diary. Subjects covered include: relationships inside the Foreign Office and diplomatic service with a sense of the complexities of British governmental policy; a trip to Rome in January 1939 to visit Mussolini regarding Hitler's in Europe; Franco and the Spanish Civil War; the German occupation of Prague in March 1939; Italian occupation of Albania; the challenges of working with the Soviet Union; the build up to war, with the declaration of war against Germany and her allies, and the following 'Phoney War' as well as social and family events.