Obviously, the general reading public has very little idea of the life of diplomats in far off posts. These "Collected Stories" are based on Springer's experience as a member of the diplomatic corps of the Netherlands in the Far East. The stories are nefarious in the sense that they give a pretty good but superficial idea of the life of diplomatic expats: quite a lot of the decadence is shown but none of the sexist, racial and colonial corruption. Two thirds of the stories are about diplomats in Dutch New Guinea, and while in the late 1950s they still drip and drool of the kind of colonial sentiment that western people ought to be ashamed of, particularly when referring to our own colonial past. The final two stories are about the life of expats in Bangkok in the 1970s. ( )