British ambassador's lover spills affair details in book

Torlot risked a diplomatic rift after he split from his wife of 23 years and moved Jennifer Steil, his American lover, into his official residence in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, last year.

But the 52-year-old's private life has returned to the limelight this week as Miss Steil, 41, disclosed how their relationship blossomed in her book, The Woman Who Fell from the Sky: An American Journalist's Adventures in the Oldest city on Earth.

Steil tells how she seduced Torlot, leading to his separation from his wife Bridie with whom he has a 19-year-old daughter.

Steil, who gave birth to Torlot's daughter, Theodora, in November, recalls how their affair began after meeting at the French ambassador's Bastille Day party in July 2007 - days after he was appointed.

She wrote: "My heart trips over itself. This is the man I want to marry."

She later recounts a second meeting with the ambassador at a party, saying; "There is just Tim, standing close to me, his pupils dilating into saucers. I know his wife is somewhere in the room, but I am never introduced to her."

"My love for him has no expectations; it just is. But why, why must there be a wife?" According to The Daily Telegraph, the memoirs, which have been published in America, also disclose intimate details of their first sexual encounter at her flat in Sana'a.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We do not comment on the private lives of our members of staff.