Word: raconteur
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Harem Asylum. Author Thayer is a fascinating raconteur of diplomatic lore; he knows about the envoys who used to smuggle silk stockings for their Russian mistresses into the Soviet Union via diplomatic pouch, and about Sir Mortimer Durand, onetime British minister in Teheran, who agreed to extend political asylum to 300 dissident members of the Shah's harem. Thayer is equally enlightening about diplomatic immunity (even corpses are immune from autopsies), espionage (one of his favorites is the operative who transported his supply of invisible ink by impregnating his socks with it), the character of embassy receptionists (they...