Our Man in Orlando

by Hugh Hunter

a land of dazzling white sands, sizzling sun... and utterly incompetent British criminals.

Like the woman who hijacked a helicopter to bust her husband out of Death Row, the gap year student who robbed a bank and tried to escape on a kid's bike and the unlucky Londoner who kidnapped the wrong guy and wound up serving 1,285 years in jail.

As British consul in our nation?s favourite holiday hotspot, Hugh Hunter has seen them all ? murderers, small-time conmen and big-time drug dealers (plus ordinary families whose dream vacations turned to nightmares).

Our Man in Orlando is his astonishing true story of a decade spent dealing with clueless, witless and hopeless Brits abroad.

Hugh Hunter was a guest on the Victoria Derbyshire show on Five Live and Excess Baggage on Radio 4.
Our Man in Orlando was serialised in The Times and The Week magazine and the book is about to be turned into a major new television drama.

'Vivid and enjoyable' - Christopher Meyer, author of DC Confidential

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Memoir, British Literature

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fascinating, weirdly exciting read. I was drawn to this book after hearing Hugh Hunter interviewed on Radio 4, on a 2010 episode of Excess Baggage about Florida. (The episode also included Sandi Toksvig - I highly recommend finding it in podcast form.) I had no idea Brits got up to so many shenanigans while on vacation in the US. The characters he meets in prisons and in his offices are absolutely fascinating and the situations they get themselves into are both infuriating and tragic. He's more sympathetic than one would expect, to murderers and thieves alike, but he also displays a strong, weirdly jealous respect for America's harsh penalties.

Oddly, the book is sprinkled throughout with mildly creepy, unexpected descriptions of his interactions with his sexy black American girlfriend - they're bizarre, slightly pathetic additions that seem to have little to do with the book as a whole, but are easy enough to skim through. I enjoy seeing America through foreign eyes and Hunter clearly loves his host country, warts and all. He saves his most overt criticism for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, which like many other bloated bureaucratic institutions, continually makes farcically bad decisions with little care for how it affects the workers at the bottom of the totem pole or the citizens it should be serving.

Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a quick and easy read on vacation.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating read, who knew that so many Brits end up in jail in Florida? Some of the stories are hilarious, however a word to the wise... don't do anything naughty in Florida, you don't want to end up in prison there, especially if you're white.

A fun read with lots of eye opening moments.

[William Alexander Cleaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting reax

Quite astonishing the large number of British criminals in FL. I found the author very dedicated to his job but a bit shocked at his rather cold behavior towards his girlfriend.

[Geicodave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life as a British vice-consul in Florida

The author served as a vice-consul in Orlando for several years. The book relates his experiences and some details of his private life. Interesting reading.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard Hugh speaking on Radio 4 about his book, my interest was very much aroused, then read reviews on Amazon for instance-- "If you read one book this year make sure its this. If you read two books you could do a lot worse than read this twice"-- and just had to read for myself, looking forward to it ......Well !!

"You do not want to be a white boy in a Florida prison. No sir, you do not." He looked at me."My friend," he said " if you are ever convicted of a crime in Florida, and they are going to send you to one of these places"- he paused for dramatic, effect-" take a gun, put it in your mouth and pull the trigger". As he said this , he mimed it with his hand to drive home the point. he meant it ...

I will leave it up to you to read why!! ...

Not! the funny from page One book that i read reviews on, but a "Very very good read" about the terrible things Brits do abroad-
" A few youthful years of high-octane excitement for this purgatory. He had completely wasted his life at a time when he was lacking the wisdom to understand what he was throwing away."
And the lock them up and throw away the key(if only it were the same here) way of USA justice.

And also the way the Foreign and Commonwealth office(FCO)became driven by targets not people, and there problems, sound familiar?..

Do read, and then behave yourself on holiday..

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book oddly engaging with the emphasis more on the "odd" than the "engaging". It is the autobiography of a man who worked for years as the British Consul in Orlando, but who seems to have spent more time visiting "British" prisoners in high security prisons than was absolutely necessary. Many of the stories he tells in this book are about the violent misfits that come his way in the course of his work and he seems fascinated by them. Certainly more fascinated with them than he is with his "beautiful" black girlfriend who drifts in and out the narrative for who knows what reason. To spice up the tale with an occasional nudge, nudge, wink, wink reference to a bit of interracial wahoo?
I feel the author, Hugh Hunter, kind of fancied himself as more suited to being a Hugh Hefner. Over-worked (really?) underpaid (probably) unappreciated (aren't we all) in his job, you get the impression that his pulse only really raced as the cell doors banged behind him as he was on his way to interview a real, live ladykiller.
It's an enjoyable enough book but one that I think I will have completely forgotten by, oh, a week on Tuesday.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are the memoirs of a British consul working out of Orlando, Florida and all his stories about the work that a consul does to assist British people in distress in a foreign country.
It was positively amazing looking at the scrapes the some people get into in a foreign land, often through their own stupidity. Other times, it was genuine help for people that got into a mess through no fault of their own.
Enjoyable, light read.

[Heather Cawte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really lively account of ten years as a British consul in Florida. He strikes a good balance between the funny, the touching and the downright nasty cases he's dealt with, as well as an insight into how the Foreign Office deals with its workers and subjects overseas.