The lot of the career diplomat in the age of instant communication, Kissinger-style air shuttles, and open season for terrorists on diplomatic establishments is not an entirely happy one. Sir Geoffrey, after a distinguished career in Britain's foreign service, writes with good sense and a light touch on the old and the new diplomacy, summitry, politically appointed envoys, and-with the authority he has as the victim of a notorious kidnapping (in Uruguay)-on the decline of diplomatic immunity.