Leigh Turner

How to become an ambassador? This page, and my new book Lessons in Diplomacy: Politics, Power and Parties attempt to answer that question. I’m also a member of International Thriller Writers. You can read about all my books on this site. 

History

Who is Leigh Turner?  Well, I was conceived in Nigeria and spent the first three years of my life there.  I’m the one on the left, my brother Stephen is holding the pram upright.

Growing up

I lived in Exeter, in the south-west of England, from ages 3-6 (my father was teaching at the university there) and in Roma, Lesotho (ditto), from ages 6-12.

Here I’m the one with bare feet. In the middle Bernard and Reginald Tekateka, on the right Stephen. My friend Bernard (second left) tragically died in a car crash in 1978. Reginald was later the Basotho Ambassador and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Bonn.

For a glimpse of why Lesotho is special, see my post Ten reasons to like Lesotho, with pictures.

In 1969-70 I went to Waterford Kamhlaba School in Swaziland.  I am grinning in this picture (standing next to Stephen) because I am wearing one of my first ever pairs of long trousers.  I still have this tie; the yellow dot on a blue background is a phoenix rising.

In 1970 my mum and dad moved to Manchester, where he was Professor at the University and she did a PhD and became a teacher of partially hearing children. I studied at Manchester Grammar School. In 1975 my bedroom looked like this. How many signs of international activity can you spot? I like this picture because it shows anyone can become a diplomat or ambassador.

In 1976 I went to Cambridge University and in 1979 started work.  The following picture, taken in West Virginia in 1982, bears no resemblance to me today.  

How to become an ambassador

From 1979 to 2021 I worked as a British diplomat and civil servant.  You can read about it in Lessons in Diplomacy. My jobs were as follows:

1979-83: jobs in the Departments of the Environment and Transport, and HM Treasury, in London. 

On holiday in the mountains of Lesotho, 1980

1983-87: transfer to the Foreign Office and first posting as Second Secretary (Political, Press and Public Affairs) in the British Embassy in Vienna, Austria.

Can you spot me photobombing Diana, Princess of Wales?

1987-91: jobs in London dealing with European Community budgetary and monetary affairs; and with counter-terrorism.

Visiting Louisiana 1990

1991-95: Russian language training and posting to the British Embassy in Moscow as First Secretary (Economic).

My Russian driving licence, 1993

1995-98: work in London on the transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

Visiting Beijing’s Forbidden City in 1996

1998-2002: posted to the British Embassy in Bonn, then Berlin, as Counsellor (EU and Economic).

On holiday in Rhodes, 1999

2002-2006: four year career break to look after the children in Berlin. I also did travel writing for the Financial Times, and wrote novels.

Making a cake in Berlin, 2003. No-one died

2006-8: Director (Overseas Territories) in London. This job involved more travel, including to very remote places, than any other in my career.

Visiting Ascension Island, 2006

2008-12: British Ambassador to Ukraine. Lessons in Diplomacy explains why being an ambassador is such a privilege and responsibility.

In the hot seat at the Strategic Missile Forces Museum, Ukraine, 2010

2012-16: Consul-General and Director General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, South Caucasus and Central Asia in Istanbul. I returned to London for a month in 2014 as joint head of the Foreign Office Crisis Unit during the Russian invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

On the Golden Horn, Istanbul, 2015

2016-21: British Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the International Organisations in Vienna

With Deep Purple in Vienna, 2017

It’s been a wonderful ride. You can see why Lessons in Diplomacy concludes with the words: “the best way to live longer is to use to the full the life you are living right now”. 

My books

My newest book is Lessons in Diplomacy, published on 24 September 2024. How do you become an ambassador? Is a diplomat’s life really as glamorous as a royal visit, or as dramatic as a coup d’état in Turkey? Now you can find out.

My bestselling fiction work is my Berlin thriller Blood Summit, published in 2017. It has had good reviews, including from John Connolly and Edmund de Waal.

My Istanbul thriller Palladium was published by US publisher Immortal Works in 2022. Click on the picture below to learn more.

My black comedy feminist collection Seven Hotel Stories stars Ms N, the world’s most brilliant, unpredictable and deadly hotel manager and her beautiful but naive ally, Tatiana.

My satirical thriller Eternal Life, the first book I wrote, explores our obsession with longevity and how it might change the world.

Lessons in Diplomacy was first published in German in April 2023 by Czernin Verlag, Vienna as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Diplomacy: Wie Diplomatie die Welt erklärt. It contains additional material to the English version and has been beautifully translated. 

All these books are available on Amazon – or you can order them at good bookshops.

Leigh Turner: more info

You can read more about me, including my taste in music, in my post Sixty Seconds with Leigh Turner.

Listen to this one-hour interview with me on “Free Radio Innsbruck” (in English, with a few words of German), focused on Blood Summit, including four readings, in October 2019.

If you want to see what I get up to, please subscribe to this blog (scroll down this page to where it says “subscribe to my updates”) and follow me on social media, eg Facebook.