Books by Katie Hickman

Daughters of Britannia:
The Lives and Times
of Diplomatic Wives
Harper Collins 2002

Drawing on letters, private journals, and memoirs, as well as contemporary oral history, Katie Hickman explores not only the public pomp and glamour of diplomatic life but also the most intimate, private face of this most fascinating and mysterious world.

Touching on the lives of nearly 100 diplomatic wives (as well as sisters and daughters), 'Daughters of Britannia' is a brilliant and compelling account of more than three centuries of British diplomacy as seen through the eyes of some of its most intrepid but least heralded participant.

Dreams of the
Peaceful Dragon:
Journey into Bhutan
Phoenix; New Ed edition 2002

Bhutan is a remote kingdom in the Himalayas, isolated from the outside world for three centuries. The western part has been opened to limited tourism, but the eastern part remains closed. Katie Hickman is one of only a handful of foreigners ever to penetrate these eastern lands. Her trip to Bhutan with photographer Tom Owen Edmunds took a year to set up. They journeyed from the capital Thimphu in the west to the easternmost borderlands and the remote mountain-top retreat of the barbarous Bragpa people. They lived as Bhutanese, and met merchants, abbots, wandering priests, lamas, hermits, a reincarnation of the Buddha and a sorceress. Katie Hickman's account contains all the unexpected and humorous aspects of travel, but, above all, it is about the people of Bhutan.

Illustrated Daughters of Britannia
Harper Collins; New Edition 2001

Accompanying their spouses in the most extraordinary, tough, sometimes terrifying circumstances, this book is an account of the courageous and unusual women who have been the backbone of the foreign service. Women who struggled to bring their civilization with them. The book is illustrated with archive material, extracts from original letters between the women and their families at home, maps to show the routes they travelled and the places they were posted to and pictures of ephemera to evoke the lives they led. The chapters cover: getting there; the posting; private life; embassy life; public life; and social life.

Courtesans
Harper Collins 2004

During the course of the nineteenth century, a small group of women rose from impoverished obscurity to positions of great power, independence, and wealth. In doing so they took control of their lives - and those of other people - and made the world do their will.

Extremely accomplished, well-educated, and unusually literate, courtesans exerted an incredible influence as leaders of society. They were not received at court, but inhabited their own parallel world - the demimonde - complete with its own hierarchies, etiquette, and protocol. They were queens of fashion, linguists, musicians, accomplished at political intrigue, and, of course, possessors of great erotic gifts. Even to be seen in public with one of the great courtesans was a much-envied achievement.

Travels with a Circis
Flamingo; New Ed edition 2001

An account of Katie Hickman's extraordinary year spent amidst the faded glamour of a Mexican travelling circus. Katie Hickman went to Mexico looking for magic. She found it in the circus - big top, clowns, elephant and all - where cheap, torn materials are transformed for a night into glittering illusion. Gradually adjusting to the harsh ways of the circus's nomadic lifestyle she soon became absorbed into this hypnotic new world. At first, as a foreigner, she was on the outskirts, but she soon became "La Gringa Estrella", a performer in her own right and adopted sister to the Bell's family. In this work, Katie Hickman describes her epic year-long journey through this extraordinary and bizarrely beautiful country. Riding elephants and playing clowns as part of the show, she uses the lessons of the circus as a focus to look deep into the complex psyche of modern Mexixo, and into the very nature of "magic" itself.