Possibly the only New Zealander to have been attacked by a library, Nick Bridge’s frightening early encounter with words did not blunt his enjoyment of them. The former diplomat has written a memoir of disarming frankness and humour about a life that ranged the globe – with assignments in seven countries including India, China and the United Kingdom.

While air travel delivered him to his international postings, Nick’s first move across the world was by boat – a seminal trip that liberated him from the class constraints of a secluded Hampshire prep school to what he describes as a ‘whirlpool of classless 1950s co-ed New Zealand’ at Hutt Valley High School, and the many opportunities that flowed from there.

Apart from diplomacy, Bridge’s roles have included batman to a bishop, hotel bellhop, self-confessed cricket tragic, president of the National Library Society, member of the Wellington Civic Trust and husband to poet and China scholar, Diana Bridge.

The Boat that Brought Me bursts with the optimistic, dynamic force that is Nick Bridge, and has been praised by readers from the head of the PM’s department to a former Indian foreign secretary to an ex-poet laureate.