Spiked Wheels and Little Owls

'When a family goes abroad it will settle down only if the mother is contented,' writes Christine Warren Tutte in this charming memoir about life at St Catherine's British Embassy School in Athens. Christine writes with a fresh, observant pen and a sharp, affectionate memory for people and for the feel, looks and smells of places, flowers, clothes, foods. As I can testify from personal experience, she was as adept at managing the Ambassadors and diplomats as she was at handling the parents and children.