At the age of twelve, Robin Pascoe 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.