Peace Makers: Shaping the modern world: the men and women of the Foreign Office in WWII

by Peter Ricketts

Peace Makers uncovers the hidden world of British diplomacy during the Second World War. Far from the quiet corridors of Whitehall, it was a stage for patriots and public servants, but also for charmers, chancers, eccentrics, and adventurers. Drawing on fresh research and vivid storytelling, the book reveals the extraordinary, often untold stories of the diplomats who shaped the war—and the world that followed.

More than a chronicle of strategy and statecraft, this is a deeply human story. Under the pressures of war, the Foreign Office began to change. Prejudices crumbled, especially around the role of women, and the wartime service paved the way for the more open, representative diplomacy of the post-war years. These accounts of persuasion, influence, and resilience remain as relevant today as they were in the 1940s. Firmly grounded in history but written for a wide readership, Peace Makers will appeal to readers of Max Hastings, Antony Beevor, and Ben Macintyre, as well as anyone interested in the hidden dramas of the war and the people who shaped the modern Foreign Office.

Peace Makers is profoundly relevant today because it shows how diplomacy, human ingenuity, and resilience can shape the course of history—even under extreme pressure. In an era of global uncertainty, where international cooperation is more crucial than ever, the book’s stories of persuasion, negotiation, and breaking down barriers offer timeless lessons. By highlighting the courage and creativity of diplomats, including the pioneering roles of women in the Foreign Office, it reminds us that progress often comes from those willing to challenge conventions. Far from being a distant historical account, Peace Makers illuminates the skills, values, and adaptability that remain essential for navigating the complex world we face now.

Chapters

1 Witness to the Paris Embassy and the fall of France 
2 The price of peace for our the build-up to war
3 Adapting to the war comes to Whitehall
4 Breaking down the women in the Foreign Office
5 Persuasion and three women of the world
6 Being met the Atlantic Charter and the outlines of a new international order
7 Cheerful eight months of lockdown in Tokyo 
8 Keeping Spain diplomats and spies in wartime Madrid
9 Running risks in Francis d’Arcy Osborne’s four years in the Vatican
10 A walk in the Russian Archibald Clark Kerr and the courting of Stalin
11 Shaping a better Gladwyn Jebb and the United Nations plan
12 Picking up the de Gaulle, Churchill and the making of an ally
13 Risking a false Yalta and the limits of diplomacy
14 The last hard from San Francisco to Potsdam
15 Winning the the Foreign Office and the post-war world

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 7, 2026

Reviews

[Thomas Ricketts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ricketts, is a career diplomat of the “professional” type--holding the post of Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office after being Ambassador to France--among other roles in the United Kingdom’s FO. He says in his afterword that he is a “distinctly amateur historian”—would that professional historians could recount past events and times as well as he has in this book about the men (and oft-forgotten) women of the UK Foreign Office just before and during WWII. He goes a bit out if his way to include women because there really weren’t in those times any in the British diplomatic establishment, really—until World War II made them necessary—and, even then accepted only begrudgingly. Women in diplomacy on behalf of the United Kingdom, were viewed as outsiders, who more or less forced their way into international affairs. The stories of several significant women diplomats are woven into the broader story of how the FO operated and contributed to the wartime effort and its immediate aftermath. The final chapter suggests that diplomatic times have changed, Russia is now a different animal altogether from Stalin times; as is China--and Trump’s provoked disarray in world affairs is likely to set the stage for a new world (dis)-order.

[Robert Webber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most interesting narrative on the role of the British Foreign Office and Diplomats posted abroad during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath. The stories of some of those stranded in aggressor nations at the start of the war and those working in dangerous places during the war are both inspiring and at times, astonishing. The secret diplomacy conducted by a British Diplomat effectively trapped in the Vatican City for four years is a good example. It is however, the work conducted by British diplomacy in the shaping of the ‘rules based order’ and the United Nations in the war’s aftermath that is most impressive. A great achievement by the representatives of a country whose influence was visibly declining after 1945. Recommended.

[Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

My knowledge of the diplomatic efforts made during and after the 2nd World War has increased 100-fold! This book is written by an experienced British diplomat with access to many primary sources and he writes in a manner which makes you want to just keep going to the end. The final chapter on the current international situation sums up the terrible risk of a world order breakdown. The autocratic leaders, of whom we are all well aware, are named and shamed as the greatest threat to world peace.

[Leon Markham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peace Makers, by Peter Ricketts

First published on 7 May 2026. The full title is Peace Makers: Shaping the Modern World: The Men and Women of the Foreign Office in WWII. Ricketts spent forty years in the Diplomatic Service. He was Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office from 2006 to 2010, the first National Security Adviser from 2010 to 2012, and Ambassador to France until 2016.

I have been reading some pretty intellectually heavy stuff recently. This was a rip roaring history of the Foreign Office during the Second World War. A sorbet between courses. Soothing balm after pushing my intellectual muscles a bit too hard.

It is written from the perspective of someone who clearly loves and admires the work and the people. That does not get in the way of telling a good story.

Women were prevented from taking the good jobs. The Foreign Service did not admit women to the administrative grade until 1946, and the marriage bar outlasted that by decades. The pressure came from outside. Eleanor Rathbone was applying it.

Rathbone had been at this for a long time. She succeeded Millicent Fawcett as president of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship in 1919. Her book The Disinherited Family, published in 1924, argued that the economic dependence of women was built into a wage system that took no account of what a family cost. She went after the insurance rules that cut married women's access to unemployment benefit and health insurance. She sat as Independent MP for the Combined English Universities from 1929 until her death in January 1946.

This was fun and engaging. I am not sure how much I learned from it, either about Britain's place in the world or about how bureaucracies function. I suspect that if I were closer to some of the people or the events involved, I would have a different view.

It finishes with a passage about how the world is changing.

As a new world of disorder looms, the need for peacemakers has never been greater

It will be interesting to see how that ages.

Three stars. I am glad I read it.

My rating system is as follows:

***** - I'll read it again
**** - You should read it
*** - I'm glad I read it
** - I wish I hadn't read it
* - I wish it hadn't been written