An ambassador's reception

THERE must be people less arrogant than Dick Wilkinson, but none immediately springs to mind. He's not a particularly tall man.

He's extremely affable and

courteous.

The Director of the Americas is the sort of person who traipses a long way to reception to collect you himself.

His demeanour certainly doesn't scream "high powered".

Yet he is.

Yesterday Dick lunched with the Duke of York.

On a day-to-day basis, he overseas British foreign policy in North and South America.

However, at the moment, he's got other things on his mind as he arranges a date with his wife.

"Shall I meet you here at seven?," he asks quietly.

Angie, who also works at the Foreign Office, agrees.

They kiss to seal the deal.

As well as being a top diplomat, Dick is the man who fell to his knees in the middle of a Paris pavement when he proposed.

Her future husband was the first person Angie, 40, met when she started at the Foreign and Colonial Office, in the heart of Whitehall.

When she moved to Paris he developed a habit of visiting her there.

Then, when a posting to Ankara threatened to put the kibosh on this cross-channel wooing, he plunged to his knees and popped the question.

Since that ultimate romantic gesture, made in one of the world's most romantic cities, the pair have worked in Mexico, Paris and, most recently, Caracas.

Dick rose through the ranks to become ambassador to Venezuela and has only recently returned from a three-year stint there.

Now he's got a job on home soil for the next two years or so, directing diplomatic doings in the Americas.

Angie works up in Whitehall too, as an advisor the hundreds of ambassadors' wives, sprinkled around the globe.

The FCO, as it's known to those in the know, is a quiet place.

There don't seem to be many people around.

The main staircase, which leads up to Robin Cook's office, is sumptuous, gold-leafed and downright grand, harking back to the age of The Empire.

Thick carpets, neck-craningly huge murals - does the ginger foreign secretary really have his Racing Post delivered here?

It's up several flights of stairs, round the corner, down the corridor, round another corner and through several doors (not necessarily in that order) to Dick's office.

"We're nearly there," he encourages, several minutes into the epic trek.

Most of the doors off the corridors are closed.

Some display notices warning that those entering require authorisation to do so.

Away from the main staircase, all traces of lavish expense have gone and uniform green paint is the order of the day.

Dick's office itself is comfortable.

The huge room has a high ceiling and there's enough furniture to fill it - but only just.

Next door is his personal assistant Nadine.

The contents of her sizeable domain comprise a desk, some cabinets and a smallish, half-eaten, sandwich.

A quarter of an hour later, Angie strides into his office and apologises several times for her tardiness.

She explains she's been wandering around the building for 15 minutes, lost, after being misdirected to the wrong floor.

The mother-of-three is articulate, direct, frank, blunt and oh-so to the point.

She possesses more than enough poise and beauty to make a man want to travel hundreds of miles to visit her (see above), a charm of which she appears completely unaware.

After the Parisian declaration of love and ensuing nuptials, Angie gave up work ("I didn't want to combine two things - I would rather be a good mum") and devoted herself to their expanding family.

Today their three children all attend schools in Hampshire, something Angie found a real wrench while on the other side of the world.

"When you are away, if there's any illness in the family you do feel pretty isolated. It was quite difficult when the boys got sick and I came rushing back."

Today, with their daughter at school, Angie can return to work, dispensing the very specialist advice, gleaned from her years abroad, to other ambassador's spouses.

This morning, she explains, she has had a visit from a harassed diplomat's wife, experiencing a string of problems with her official residence.

She has also just received an e-mail, requesting she change her job title from "spouses' liaison" to a more modern "partners' liaison" ("of course I will look after any partners").

"Her job is very much more interesting than mine," asserts Dick with sotto voce authority.

There were personal motives for Angie's return to the labyrinth of corridors behind the polished brass plate and security guards.

It enables Angie and Dick to spend more time with each other.

"We were a partnership in Caracas and I felt I wanted to rejoin the Foreign Office so I could travel on the train with Dick."

Throughout his career, Dick, 54, has obviously used his wife as a valuable sounding board.

The interview is punctuated with "What do you think Angie?" and "Dick, Dick, do you agree?"

They are a real double act, the charismatic beauty and the top bureaucrat with the Rolls Royce intellect.

Dick confesses he would find all the dinners "pretty boring" if he didn't have Angie by his side, so they can then exchange thoughts and impressions afterwards.

The word "ambassador" normally prompts chortling about the horrific Ferrero Rocher advert, in which a guest is proffered an unfeasibly mountainous plate of the crispy chocolates and gushes "your excellency, with these you are spoiling us".

Actually diplomacy is delicate stuff, with huge economic repercussions for this country.

Being director of the Americas means overseeing the running of all the British embassies in the two continents, bidding for money from the Treasury - and then allocating it.

Dick has around 75 staff at the FCO, and 500 scattered across the two continents.

Around one fifth of Dick's time is spent travelling, visiting the offices under his control, to check how things are going and boost morale.

"You have to see them working in their own environment to see that they are doing a good job - and to make sure they feel they are being valued."

One of Dick's forthcoming trips is to the Falkland Islands.

There he will tour the dreary landscape, meet bigwigs and probably be interviewed by the newspaper, Penguin News.

Although Argentina's attempt to claim the Falklands in 1982 failed, it continues to lay claim to them.

Relations have thawed between the two countries since the war - indeed, our respective armies have been on exercises together - but it's a situation which still requiring deft handling.

"It's a big diplomatic problem - how we can maintain our promises to our Falkland islanders but, at the same time, manage our relationship with Argentina, who are convinced the islands were stolen from them."

Other sensitive policy areas include the traditional dispute between Belize and Guatemala and the serious internal problems in Colombia.

But much of British foreign policy is proactive and positive.

We try to help countries, like Jamaica, control crime and drug trafficking, to preserve and fortify these democracies in the face of very difficult threats from global and international crime.

Then there's a lot of promoting Britain, and British companies abroad, with possible boosts for our businesses.

For example, Chile's expanding economy means it is playing an increasingly important role on the world stage.

"We want them to consider the UK as one of their gateways into Europe and for that we need to be active there.

"The main lines of British foreign policy remain much the same. But you notice this government takes foreign aid much more seriously. Clare Short is doing a very good job. And it considers that the UK should be supporting the human rights around the world. The previous government had a more hard-headed view of what British interests were."

And, of course, there are endless social events to which he is invited, where there is normally not a chocolate in sight.

The day before we met Dick had attended a lunch where the Duke of York was entertaining the Chilean foreign minister.

And the many evening receptions mean, at this time of year, Dick doesn't get to see his home city of Winchester in day light very often.

Early each morning the half-hour walk to the city's railway station allows him to clear his mind and get some exercise.

But for the rest of the time he flies from meeting to meeting.

"It's fairly unrelenting but it's varied. And the travelling is very interesting. It can be stressful. One of the difficulties is you have to be able to delegate."

Dick gives absolutely nothing away.

A true professional, each word is selected with care.

His intellect and education (Eton and Cambridge University) mean he run rings around the rest of us.

It's a well-honed talent that's set to take him abroad again.

After completing a three-year stint in London, it's likely he will become an ambassador again - somewhere a bit bigger than Venezuela.

"The great thing about a diplomatic career is you change jobs every three years. If you are enjoying a job, then that's great. And, if you're not, you know you will be doing something different in three years' time."

Any idea where he and Angie might go?

"We're both fluent in Spanish and French, but I wouldn't fancy learning something like Chinese or Russian."

Is this a clue about their next destination?

Who can tell.

But whereever they are in the world, Dick and Angie's close partnership make them an impressive double act.

It takes a superior level of mutual understanding and respect to live and work so closely.

Shaking hands at the entrance Angie adds: "I'm serious about this going home on the train thing. It gives us a chance to chat."