• Daughters of Britannia

  • The Lives & Times of Diplomatic Wives
  • By: Katie Hickman
  • Narrated by: Rosalind Shanks
  • Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Release date: 09-06-06
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: Oakhill Publishing Ltd
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars 3.7 (22 ratings)

Regular price: $41.14

Membership details Membership details
  • A 30-day trial plus your first audiobook, free.
  • 1 credit/month after trial – good for any book, any price.
  • Easy exchanges – swap any book you don’t love.
  • Keep your audiobooks, even if you cancel.
  • After your trial, Audible is just $14.95/month.
Buy Now for $41.14
Select or Add a new payment method

Buy Now with 1 Credit

By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Buy Now for $41.14

Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Add to Library for $0.00

By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

A mixture of poignant biography and marvelously entertaining social history, this is the story of diplomatic life as it has never been told before, seen through the eyes of the wives, daughters, and sisters who accompanied their men to the far corners of the globe.
©1999 Kate Hickman; (P)2006 Oakhill Publishing Ltd
Show More Show Less

Critic Reviews

"Katie Hickman's fascinating Daughters of Britannia looks beyond the pomp and pagentry of the British foreign service and into the reality of making a life abroad in foreign lands." (Vogue)
"This is a lovely book: affectionate, celebratory, and as conscious of the glory as the hardship. These women lived: they saw dolphins in the Bosphorus at dawn, took tea with empresses, watched eclipses in Turkistan. And they were so lonely that they wrote it all down." (Sunday Times)
Show More Show Less

Audible.com Reviews
Audible.co.uk reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
out of 5 stars
By Linda on 03-27-07

Daughters of Britannia

Well written, narrated and very interesting.

Read More Hide me

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

3 out of 5 stars
By Erin on 02-26-09

daughters of britannia

The subject is fascinating, and it is well researched. Having said that I give this audiobook 3 stars because I don't think audio is the best format to highlight the material. There are so many details that in my opinion it is best suited for text, perhaps an abridged version might be better in audio.

Read More Hide me

1 of 4 people found this review helpful

See all Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful
3 out of 5 stars
By Mirium on 01-31-08

Fascinating detail

Fascinating detail, although I found it a bit repetitive, with an awful lot of lists. Because the book is divided into chapters according to subject matter, the same characters and places crop up throughout the book, and it was difficult to keep track of who was whom, and where - with an audio book, you can't just flick back through the pages to remind yourself!

It was interesting to hear about the harsh and unpleasant reality behind the scenes of the supposedly glamorous diplomatic service. So many trivial points of dress, etiquette and protocol that had to be observed! There were some harrowing accounts, too, such as Jane Ewart-Biggs's account of her husband's assassination by the IRA in 1976, and I really felt for Veronica Atkinson and her family, hiding in the basement of the British Embassy in Romania in 1989, during the uprising that overthrew the Ceacescu regime.

I just felt it was slightly too long - Katie Hickman seems to have put in every single item she has researched, some of which would have been better edited out.

Read More Hide me

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

5 out of 5 stars
By Maureen on 06-19-09

Unusual and interesting

A well-read book full of fascinating details and many amusing incidents. Unlike other reviewers, I did not find the reference to different periods confusing. This is a book I am happy to recommend to others.

Read More Hide me

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

See all Reviews