The Laughing Diplomat
by Daniele Varè
What Varè captures is the excitement of representation, and the elegance of it as a profession in those days, from a time when diplomacy was glamorous. Along the way there are scenes of romance, intense political manoeuvring, and ‘grandeur and decadence’. But, of course, the sinister undertone is that he was increasingly representing a fascist dictatorship, and ultimately there had to be a disjuncture between the honourable way in which he represented his country and the thuggishness of the system he was there to represent.
