English best-seller has Carolinian roots

Popular nonfiction 'Over Here' explores relationship of Great Britain, United States

Web posted June 29, 1998

Associated Press

UNION, S.C. -- Over Here, the best-selling book written by Raymond Seitz, the former American ambassador to the Court of St. James, is dedicated to a Union native.

Mr. Seitz says he doesn't know a more insightful person, nor a sharper wit, a warmer refuge, a finer friend or an American who has a deeper affection for Britain.

He is talking about his wife, Caroline Richardson Seitz, the daughter of Eleanora ``Nonie'' Richardson of Union and the late Henry Richardson.

Over Here gives Mr. Seitz's insights on Great Britain and its relationship with the United States. It peaked at No. 2 on the nonfiction best-seller list in Great Britain.

Mr. Seitz said he wrote the book because he has lived in Britain three times and has seen many of changes.

``I had a lot of little observations that never fit in with my official life that I wanted to get off my chest,'' he said. ``I had the sense that with the end of the Cold War, relationships were going to change but there would continue to be something valuable in the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, and that needed to be reaffirmed.''

Although the book will not be sold in the United States, Eleanora Richardson ordered several copies.

``I'm very proud of the way in which Raymond represented his country in Great Britain, and I think this is an excellent book and very interesting,'' said Mrs. Richardson, a longtime supporter of the county library. ``I hope people wanting to know about Great Britain will take it out and read it.''

Mrs. Richardson said Mr. Seitz told her he wrote much of the book working on a card table beside her pool while he and Caroline were visiting Union.

Mr. Seitz says his wife has put up with much being married to an ambassador, but she's been the best possible partner.

``When we married, I had an interesting job as executive assistant to George Shultz,'' Mr. Seitz said. ``These things are so full of serendipity to have much expectations of anything. I had lived in London, Washington. A career diplomat had never been appointed. I had no thought that I would be appointed.''

Mr. Seitz, a native of Honolulu, is the son of John F.R. Seitz, a distinguished Army general who commanded the Big Red One, the 26th Infantry Regiment of the First Division, which landed on Omaha Beach during the D-Day Invasion of Normandy.

After graduating from Yale, Mr. Seitz joined the U.S. foreign service in 1966. He held posts in Canada and Africa and was three times assigned to the American embassy in London, on the last occasion as ambassador. He resigned in 1994.

Caroline Richardson graduated from Union High School and earned a degree in English from Sweet Briar College.

She worked for a year as an assistant to the Great Books editor of Time books. She was living in Africa doing volunteer work when she met Mr. Seitz. They married in 1985.

Mr. Seitz was the first career diplomat to occupy the ambassador's post, which normally is reserved as a reward for influential political friends of an incoming presidential administration.

The Seitzes quickly won the hearts of the British, who were interested in the couples' dogs and their love for Skippy peanut butter, which they have to import to Britain because it isn't sold there.

While Mr. Seitz was ambassador, the couple lived in Winfield House. Mr. Seitz said his wife constructed the menus, chose the flowers and ``negotiated the social intricacies that are so much a part of London.''

Mr. Seitz now is vice chairman of Lehman Brothers International in Europe, and he serves on several corporate boards in Britain and the United States. He is also a frequent contributor to London newspapers.

Mr. Seitz and his wife bought a home on East Battery Street in Charleston and plan to return to live in the United States to be closer to Mrs. Richardson.