| Description | Shuckburgh did not settle on a final title for his memoir: he considered 'Ascent to Diplomacy' or 'Approach to Diplomacy'.
He completed drafts of four chapters: 1 Childhood and schooldays; 2 Foreign Office; 3 Abroad; 4 The Argentine. A file of letters and other documents dating from Shuckburgh's time in Prague was found with these papers. He probably intended to use these as source material for his next chapter, but he did not write more than four paragraphs.
The memoir was never finished, although it was read by a publisher. Shuckburgh explains at the end of the introduction in MS191/4/6/3, that 'I must add, in 1992, I did not succeed in composing a book which would justify the above title or the above description. I laboured through our experiences until about the time we left Argentina (1945) but faltered at that point and have been quite unable to deal with the more important aspects and highlights of my career'. |