The Wandering Civil Servant of Stradivarius.

'A captivating and heartfelt memoir from at true music afficionado.'

This is not a 'conventional' diplomatic memoir about political 'revelations', but a passionate account of the extraordinary life of a young professional violinist in Switzerland, a senior British diplomat around the world, a nuclear environmental expert in post-Soviet Russia, and pro bono work with arts charities around Europe. Hearing Yehudi Menuhin play solo Bach and Bartók in Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre in 1959 would prove an epiphany for the seventeen-year-old Desmond Cecil. Already an advanced oboe student of Joy Boughton, he decided there and then, against all the odds, to become a violinist. This autobiography tells the remarkable journey its author took in his quest to follow his passion to perform music – eventually with his own Stradivari violin.