Thirty Days in February is set in 1996 at the height of an international crisis. A young MI6 officer is sent to assess attitudes of regional governments and to liaise with other intelligence officials from friendly nations. His journey around the world includes Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Australia and New Zealand. It is a combination of travel diary, diplomacy and a close insight into the life of a young intelligence officer. Written twenty years after the events took place, following recent lifting of the restrictions under the reformed Thirty Year Rule; this story shows the continuing impact of the United Kingdom on international affairs and its global reach as one of the world's major powers. This is John Ault's first publication as a fiction writer and it shows significant awareness of the intelligence community, the nature of how intelligence worked in the pre-digital age and how diplomacy in South East Asia and Australasia was so important in this period - following the election of President Jacques Chirac in 1995.