Sherard Cowper-Coles was born in Kent and educated at New Beacon School, Tonbridge School and Hertford College, Oxford where he read Classics. He entered the Foreign Office in 1977, where he enjoyed a 30-year career, holding a string of high-profile overseas diplomatic postings in Beirut, Alexandria and Cairo, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Washington and Paris. His first book, Cables from Kabul, chronicling his diplomatic tenure in Afghanistan and Pakistan, was published to great acclaim.