For fifteen years, Ian Court was appointed British Honorary Consul to San Juan, Puerto Rico. As governmental diplomatic roles go, this somewhat anachronistic position seems to exist in a political no-mans land-they represent the interests of their native country, yet receive no salary and have little clout.

However, this somewhat prosaic description of the position belies the fact that the experiences Court had during his tenure were anything but-for in this series of vignettes there is humour, danger, bureaucratic baloney and more than a few situations that beggar belief-even if they are...