William Burns Former US ambassador to Russia:

The US diplomat William Burns (below) could have been a prizewinning New York Times writer or novelist. Everyone likes Burns's vivid and impressionistic dispatch from a wedding in Dagestan, but more astonishing still is his 7,500-word cable on the war in Chechnya: a brilliant and passionate piece of analysis on one of the world's darkest conflicts. Russia is a land of rumour, misinformation, and outright lies. But with Burns - who was ambassador there from 2005 to 2008 - you feel you get the truth, or at least as close as we will ever get to it, written in sharp, crystalline prose. This career diplomat, who served briefly as acting US secretary of state before Hillary Clinton was sworn in, is now the highest-ranking diplomat in the US foreign service and the under-secretary of state for political affairs.

Anne Patterson Former US ambassador to Pakistan:

Anne Patterson (pictured below), the US ambassador in Pakistan, was quietly shuffled out of her post in October, just weeks before the US embassy cables leak. Her departure does not seem to be a coincidence: in a series of classified dispatches back to Washington she accused Pakistan's government of supporting militants, including the Taliban in Afghanistan, largely because of Pakistan's fear of India. Despite the US having given more than pounds 10bn worth of aid to Islamabad since 2001, the regime still regards New Delhi - and not homegrown jihadi extremists - as its principal strategic threat, she wrote.

Ouch! Patterson's cables are written in workmanlike prose, and generally lack the literary flair of some of her colleagues' efforts. But her conclusions are clear enough: that Washington's geopolitical goals for Pakistan are frustrated, unrealised and probably unachievable. She appears to be currently between assignments.

Robert Godec Former US ambassador to Tunisia:

Now labouring under the title of principal deputy co-ordinator for counter-terrorism, Robert Godec was the US ambassador to Tunisia from 2006 to 2009. His frank cables portrayed the Tunisian government as corrupt and sclerotic, "with little freedom of expression or association, and serious human rights problems". In one cable he detailed a dinner at the home of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's son-in-law, who seemed to regard himself as a man of the people despite keeping a tiger as a pet and having his ice-cream flown in from St Tropez (which, for the ambassador, must make a nice change from Ferrero Rocher).

Godec's mere mention of the hatred that ordinary Tunisians felt for the first lady, Leila Trabelsi, led to the regime banning websites that published WikiLeaks cables, which in turn contributed to the unrest that brought about Ben Ali's downfall.

Ron McMullen Former US ambassador to Eritrea:

There are many hardship postings. But it is clear from the anguished dispatches of Ron McMullen - the US ambassador in Eritrea - that he sees himself as the state department's most unlucky diplomat. A cable from March 2009 begins: "Young Eritreans are fleeing their country in droves, the economy appears to be in a death spiral, Eritrea's prisons are overflowing, and the country's unhinged dictator remains cruel and defiant."

It gets worse. The regime "is one bullet away from implosion" but staggers on because of a strong nationalism and "the capacity of most Eritreans to withstand suffering and deprivation with forbearance and toughness". His ordeal doesn't just encompass being stuck in Asmara, Eritrea's gloomy, rundown, ill-kept, former Italian colonial capital. During one diplomatic lunch under a "thorny acacia tree", the ambassador and his wife have to eat "grilled sheep innards served with honey and chilli sauce". To drink? "[The meal was] washed down with a sour, semi-fermented traditional drink called, aptly, 'sewa'." McMullen is now in the US as diplomat-in-residence at the University of Texas in Austin.

Tatiana Gfoeller US ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic:

Still serving as American ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic, Tatiana Gfoeller (below) had the misfortune to attend a dire-sounding brunch with Prince Andrew, which dragged on twice as long as it was supposed to while the prince indulged in jingoistic claptrap, railed against the "idiocy" of anti-corruption investigations into the al-Yamamah arms deal, and criticised "those [expletive] journalists from the National [sic] Guardian, who poke their noses everywhere". The other guests - mostly British businessmen with interests in the region - clapped and cheered. In her subsequent cable, Gfoeller seemed slightly mystified by proceedings. She speaks six languages fluently, but Idiot clearly isn't one of them.