Attache Cases

About the Book

After a year’s training in Hungarian, the author was accredited as the British Defence Attaché in Budapest.   In this book, in light-hearted mood, he describes some of the challenges and the variety of the life of a military attaché from intelligence gathering to arms sales, from writing the Hungarian application to join NATO to receptions and dinners great and small, from interpreting to intrigue.     He lifts the curtain to look at life with the Diplomatic Service and explores the way different nations tried to cover the same tasks.

This series of humorous anecdotes is set against the background of a Hungarian nation stepping out of communism and into a modern, western, market economy; something they were keen to do, but are not quite sure how to go about it.

About the Author

Howard Stephens was born in London in 1943.  He was educated at Mercers’ School and joined the Army in 1963.  He was commissioned from Sandhurst in December 1964 and for the next 34 years he served in posts in the Middle East, Africa, and continental Europe.  During which time he was trained in 6 foreign languages and he ended up as the senior colonel of the Royal Logistic Corps.  He spent 10 years of his service behind the Iron Curtain, 6 before the Berlin Wall came down, and 4 in Hungary as the British Defence Attaché.  He is married to Celia who gave up her own military career to provide the essential support that was needed in most of these posts.  

He retired from the Army in 1998 and for the past 10 years he has run Bressingham Museum and Gardens in south Norfolk.   His other books include ‘Norfolk and Suffolk in the Age of Steam’, ‘Royal Scot – First in the Class’ and some local histories.