In this compelling biography, Andrew Boyd tells the story of Baroness Cox's humble beginnings as a nurse and her subsequent nine-year fight as a sociology lecturer and Labour supporter against intimidation by the hard left. Caroline Cox's secret expeditions to buy freedom for slaves captured by Arab traders in Sudan's war against black Africans. This is just one campaign in the Baroness's tireless patrol of the world's least glamorous causes. Her elevation to the peerage by Margaret Thatcher enabled her to draw greater attention to the causes she espoused. And she was not afraid to put her own life at risk to do so, as she frequently did during her numerous, hazardous treks into first Communist Poland and Moscow, then warring Nagorno Karabakh, Burma and north-east Africa on behalf of Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
Not to minimize the suffering of people all over the world but this particular tale was alternately inspiring and beyond depressing and not a little shocking. While we all NEED to know this, the details of torture were, to my own too-sensitive sensibilities, unnecessary. The story starts out well enough and Baroness Cox is a surprising choice of servant by the Lord, but she comes through with flying colors. I am better, in the long run, for having read the book though there are many details that are distracting from the story itself.