e lost her mother suddenly to a brain aneurysm. At sixteen, when her father remarried, she saw everything familiar-her home, her school, and friends-vanish overnight. It was a rocky start in life, but luckily, Pascoe was blessed with optimism, an irrepressible spirit, and the driving power of her own resilience.

The stories in The Carry-On Imperative recount Pascoe's ambitious beginnings as a journalist and broadcaster through her years as a not-so-diplomatic foreign service spouse. Her trail-blazing books about globally mobile families made her an in-demand speaker worldwide and led to the creation of The Expat Expert, one of the first websites for expats.

Fans of The Diplomat will relish this rollicking memoir from "the wife," who trails her husband to far-flung locales but works hard to establish her own identity and career. Wise, touching, and laugh-out-loud funny, The Carry-On Imperative is a delightful, inspirational chronicle of one woman's travels, travails, and lifelong quest to transmute the pain of her early losses into understanding and assistance of others.