The ‘crossing-the pond’ tour to promote the US edition of Papa Spy (Walker Books/Bloomsbury US) kicked off in Washington DC on June 8th with a well attended lunchtime reception at the Spanish embassy residence on Foxhall Road. It continued with further ‘gigs’ in Georgetown, New York and Boston-all perfectly timed not to clash with World Cup games!

In Washington DC, the genial Spanish ambassador Jorge Dezcallar, a popular figure on the US diplomatic circuit, and his wife Teresa warmly greeted Jimmy and an array of invited guests drawn from the media, publishing, US government service, and other professional sectors.

Among those savouring the embassy’s excellent gazpacho, tapas, and wines were Washington based Spanish, US and British correspondents, social bloggers, and other assorted players including the UN’s deputy director of Information David Smith, the curator of the CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection Hayden B. PEAKE, along with representatives from the US state department, British and US universities, and the local expatriate Spanish community.

As a former chief of the Spanish intelligence service, ambassador Dezcallar was in his element introducing the book and its author in the residence’s delightful Andalucian-style patio filled with orange trees. Jimmy then took the podium to chat about how he had gone about writing the book, and the stories of love, intrigue, and betrayal it contains.

Before opening himself to questions from the floor, Jimmy read an extract from the book, in which his ‘spy’ father meets his Spanish mother and brings about one of the most entertaining and colourful marriages of WW2

“I know my late father and mother would have both liked to have been here today. They had many friends in Washington-some still alive today, "Jimmy told his audience.

The next day, the Papa Spy road show moved to Georgetown, where students of intelligence, young and old, joined other US fans in packing the conference room of the Mortara Centre for Peace & Security Studies for an event jointly sponsored by the Spy Museum.

Jimmy had visited he museum earlier in the day and admitted that he had failed miserably when attempting to play the role of a Russian undercover agent.

Later he felt very much at home in Georgetown. It was here that he had done some of the research for Papa Spy in the rich archive of letters and other documents stored in the university’s rare manuscript collection. The event’s host, the Centre’s Director of Intelligence Studies, Jennifer Sims described Papa Spy as an important contribution to intelligence history. The evening was rounded off with a well-attended dinner hosted by Jimmy for his Washington friends at one of Georgetown’s better known Italian restaurants. Good wine, pasta, and conversation flowed into the later hours. Those gathered at table included NPR’s David Welna, the US editor of the Sunday Times Christina Lamb, and Kai Easton, a South African/US London based academic who is researching the life and times of the legendary transatlantic sailor, Michael Richey (an important character in Papa Spy).

Nursing a slight hang-over, Jimmy took an early train the next morning to New York for a speaking engagement organised by the Cervantes Institute during which a small documentary clip on Papa Spy was shown, and wine served by the US publishers Walker/Bloomsbury US.

Up early, the following day, Jimmy went walk-about his favourite New York neighbourhoods, including Greenwich Village and Chelsea, checking Papa Spy was in Borders-it was-and then  joining his dear friend Conde Nasts’s Gully Wells for a dinner with friends at her and her husband Peter’s beautifully converted home in Brooklyn. Guests included Jimmy’s US editor George Gibson of Walker Books/ Bloomsbury, the FT’s New York columnist John Gapper and his wife, the novelist Rosie Dastgir, and the writer and journalist Lawrence Osborne.

The last leg of the tour was at Boston College, another packed event. The venue was the John Burns library (no relation) which houses other collections researched by the author, not least numerous letters written by Graham Greene, who also forms part of the dramatis personae in Papa Spy. The event took the form of a lively conversation around the book between the author and his Boston-based nephew, the journalist James Parker.

I (its Jimmy’s here) would like to thank all my US –based friends and supporters for making this such a great trip. Comrade Mat Garrahan (FT) , it was good of you to come over from LA. Jurek Martin, thanks for being there. You are a brave old warrior, a mentor from my early days in journalism, and one of my favourite writers. Few can write and talk about the US with the insight and humour that you do-besides my old mate Hitch who I wish a speedy recovery to.

Special thanks to Jonathan Kroberger and George Gibson at Walker/Bloomsbury for overcoming budget constraints,and a genial lunch in Manhattan, to David and Kathleen (for putting me up in Bethesda), to Pato and partner (supper in Washington), Nigel and Katherine Adams (my hosts in Wenham, Mass.) and Gully Wells and Peter who generously hosted another very special supper in Brooklyn, NYC. Thanks too to Kai, a true fan, who came to Washington and Boston, and introduced me to the memorable Page Wilson and Captain Joe over gin and tonics, red wine, and delicious home –delivery Thai food in a magical garden somewhere in Georgetown.

My ten days in the US coincided with arguably the worst ecological disaster in the nation’s history, an unresolved war in Afghanistan, and the site of too many Americans still using gas-guzzling 4X4’s and eating too much and utterly disinterested in the new UK government, still less Europe at large. Thankfully I also met many Americans who still believe in Obama-just, drive hybrids, and are interested in my books!

Click here to Watch Jimmy Burns at the Cervantes Institute, New York June 10th