''Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs'' is a book by

Chris Patten Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, (; born 12 May 1944) is a British politician who was the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 and Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992. He was made a life pe ...

, published by

Allen Lane Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fictio ...

in September 2005. Patten was the last

Governor of Hong Kong The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. ...

and afterwards became Europe's Commissioner for External Relations. In the book, he attempts to provide insights into the world of diplomacy and discusses the position of a unified Europe in relation to the United States and emerging powers such as India and China. A revised version of the book for the American market is called ''Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century''. It contains an additional chapter, ''Happy Families''. The book contains an interesting comment on Black and Scholes regarding their option pricing formula (p. 218): "... it is surely laughable when the highest awards are showered on those who promote the most gimcrack schemes to make them-selves rich, at least for a while. The geniuses who invented the pyramid of derivatives at Long-Term Capital Management were awarded the Nobel Prize for their cleverness, not long before the whole edifice came crashing down with the financial community digging deep into its pockets to prevent too much collateral damage. To every excess, there comes a reaction."

References

* * * Book Review: Gerhard Schroeder: ''Europe and the USA'', Vierteljahreshefte für Politik und Kultur, Mai 2006 48 Jg., p. 72,73 2005 non-fiction books Politics of Hong Kong Non-fiction books about diplomacy Books about foreign relations of the United Kingdom Allen Lane (imprint) books {{UK-poli-book-stub