Showing results by author "Katie Hickman"

Elizabeth Staveley sits in the Bodleian library, holding in her trembling hands a fragment of ancient paper. It is the key to a story that has been locked away for four centuries - the story of a British sea captain's daughter held captive in a sultan's harem.

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.

1611, after 10 years in the Orient, Celia Lamprey and her husband Paul Pindar have returned to England, bringing with them a legendary diamond despite the curse that surrounds it. An army of carpenters, gardeners and footmen have been summoned to restore Pindar's great house Bishopsgate to its former splendour, but all is not as it seems.

Venedig, 1604. I byens mere skumle kvarterer, blandt kurtisaner og hasardspillere, begynder der at gå rygter om en yderst smuk og sjælden diamant - Sultanens Blå. Paul Pindar, en købmand udsendt af det Ostindiske Kompagni, får nys om den og bliver mere og mere overbevist om, at diamanten har forbindelse til hans elskede Celias skæbne. I den landlige omegn af byen får en gruppe kvindelige gøglere en besynderlig opgave: De skal transportere en stum kvinde og hendes forkrøblede "havfruebarn" til Venedig. Samtidig skjuler en ung kvinde, med en mystisk fortid, sig i et af Venedigs klostre.

In this fascinating BBC Radio series, Katie Hickman examines the lives of 'diplomatic women' through their letters and diaries. From the first exploratory expeditions into foreign lands, through the heyday of the British Empire and still today, the foreign service has been shaped and run behind the scenes by the wives of ambassadors and minor civil servants.