Peter Ricketts was a British diplomat for more than forty years and rose to be the Permanent Under Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service. He was also the UK's first National Security Advisor, and Ambassador to France. He is now a member of the House of Lords, the Chairman of the Franco-British Council and Vice Chairman of the Royal United Services Institute. He is much in demand as a commentator on foreign affairs, appearing regularly on the BBC, Sky News, Times Radio and LBC. He has written for the FT, the Times and the New Statesman. His first book, Hard Choices: the making and unmaking of global Britain, was published in 2021.