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A Fortunate Life: The Autobiography of Paddy Ashdown
No other British political leader of the postwar generation has led a life as varied, adventurous, and dramatic as Paddy Ashdown. He has been an officer in the Royal Marine Commandos, a diplomat, an MP and leader of his party, and an international peacemaker in war-torn Bosnia. In this sprawling autobiography that addresses his years in politics, he writes with authority about topics as diverse as tracking down infiltrating Indonesian forces in the jungles of Sarawak; landing a raiding party from a submerged submarine; the difficulties of learning Chinese; negotiating with Tony Blair; and bringing stability to a country wracked by civil war. While deadly serious when discussing his family, his country, his party, and the Bosnian people, Ashdown also has a refreshing gift for self-deprecating wit and has wealth of anecdotes. This is the self-portrait of a man who has lived life to the fullest for the benefit of a nation.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published April 21, 2009
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About the author
Paddy Ashdown
33 books29 followersFollowing service as a Royal Marine Commando officer of a Special Boat Service unit in the Far East, Paddy Ashdown served as a diplomat in the Foreign Officer before, in due course, being elected as the Member of Parliament for Yeovil, serving in that capacity from 1983 to 2001.
Ashdown went on to serve as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999. Afterwards, he was appointed as the international community's High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving from 2002 to 2006.
Ashdown is also an author of many books, which include 'A Brilliant Little Operation (which won the British Army Military History Prize for 2013) and 'The Cruel Victory.'
Ashdown went on to serve as the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999. Afterwards, he was appointed as the international community's High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, serving from 2002 to 2006.
Ashdown is also an author of many books, which include 'A Brilliant Little Operation (which won the British Army Military History Prize for 2013) and 'The Cruel Victory.'
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 28, 2018
What a full life he led, that is for sure. He did a lot of good. I was mostly interested in his liberal politics, and this I was a bit disappointed. There's a lot of info about his school experiences, and years in the royal navy, some about his years in parliament and a little about his role in Bosnia Herzegovenia.
I bought this book just after he passed away before Christmas 2018, in a desire to know more about him. This book gave me that, yet still it was oddly disappointing. I was more interested in the ideas, he wanted to tell me about what he DID.
I bought this book just after he passed away before Christmas 2018, in a desire to know more about him. This book gave me that, yet still it was oddly disappointing. I was more interested in the ideas, he wanted to tell me about what he DID.
January 11, 2020
I loved this book. I've always admired Paddy Ashdown and it was great to read about his life. I found his book to be honest and funny, though in parts quite sad. Highly recommended.
July 26, 2014
I picked up a copy of Paddy Ashdown’s ‘A fortunate life’ with one question in mind: what motivated someone with considerable talents to delve into politics by joining the UK Liberal Party*? When Ashdown became active in the party in 1976 the Liberals were long past their heyday of being Britain’s natural party of government. The party had only 7 seats in the 650 seat House of Commons. Of these 7, there were bitter feuds and tensions. Hardly a wise place to start for the ambitious, but then again his life didn’t conform to the usual political narrative of student politician - staffer – short stint in law – member of parliament.
So who was he? Paddy Ashdown was born in Northern Ireland, became a distinguished British Special Forces Officer, a spy and diplomat for the British foreign service, a Liberal Party MP and leader, and was the UN and EU High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Balkan conflict. Not too many MPs in any parliament brought the experience Ashdown did: fighting insurgents in the jungles of Borneo, running peacekeeping missions in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, smuggling himself into Sarajevo during its siege to bring word to the international community of the humanitarian disaster unfolding there and along the way mastering seven languages.
The autobiography follows his life chronologically, and the story is kept engaging with Ashdown’s humour. The bizarre events and rituals from his military life prove to be particularly good fodder:
“Indeed, [special forces] survival training was the subject of the shortest and most effective lesson I have ever attended. The instructor, one of our Sergeants and a mountain of a man, came into the lecture room in which we were all seated, walked up to the front and put both his arms on the lectern. ‘Right! Today you will learn survival. It’s not complicated,’ he said, pulling two very ancient pieces of bread, curled up at the edges, out of one pocket of his parachute smock. He then pulled a live frog out of the other, put it between the pieces of bread and ate it. ‘If you can do that,’ he said, ‘you will survive. If you can’t you won’t!’ Then, lecture over, he left the room, leaving us with our eyes out on stalks and a lesson we would never forget.”
Reflections offered at key events and times show how he developed a liberal political orientation, which at its heart Ashdown (in my view rightly) identifies as a deep dislike of privilege. Early on Ashdown talks of inheriting his father’s disdain for Britain’s stuffy class system, and how his experiences in the army, where a wealthy background counted for naught, shaped his conviction that a meritocratic society was a good one.
But abhorring old boys clubs, nepotism and other manifestations of privilege does not lead most people to liberalism. The ranks of socialism are the usual benefactor of such an attitude, so what then makes a liberal? Observing that the state can confer privilege and disregard merit just as callously as a powerful cliché is, to my mind, often the starting point. Though a socialist might argue that the state can be reformed to remove the long-running privileges that certain dominant groups have been afforded, and certainly this has happened over the last century, a liberal is suspicious that a majoritarian state prone to rent seeking will deliver on this promise. It’s not a pro-status quo position – leave that to conservatives – but liberalism’s default stance is skepticism of the means of creating a more egalitarian society, even if the motivation is shared. Though a Labour voter in early life, Ashdown reflects he’d never thought of himself as a socialist, as he’d witnessed the more interventionist policies of British Labour governments finish in disaster. By his thirties he had developed a nascent sense that “the encouragement of responsible individualism and the creation of an effective meritocracy” was a better path to a good society than “state intervention and social engineering”. Catalysing the break with Labour was the failure of the Callaghan (Labour) government to adopt a less confrontational industrial relations policy, and a growing fear that the UK Labour Party was entirely dependent upon the unions: “I parted company with it in disgust”.
But where to go from there? “I could never be a Tory of course, and thought the Liberal Party too small, too zany and too incoherent to be worth looking at.” What’s amazing here is that a chance encounter with a liberal canvasser, who was door-knocking in Ashdown’s neighbourhood, spurred a most impressive conversion. Ashdown told the man at his door he wouldn’t vote Liberal unless he could convince him otherwise. Two hours and a couple of cups of tea later Ashdown was sold on voting Liberal.
It’s easy to look down on political ‘grunt work’ but this story really captures how even a humble member can make a difference. Ashdown’s chance encounter with this canvasser would eventually see him become a party activist, leave a promising career in the foreign service to become a candidate in a seat that hadn’t elected a Liberal in half a century, and a party leader who transformed the party from a marginal force to a serious contender capable of forming government less than paving the way for the party to enter coalition government a decade later. Maybe the canvasser never realised that he’d just recruited the party’s most capable leader (in terms of winning seats) since Gladstone, but stories like this are a good antidote to cynicism about grass roots activism.
The story of how Ashdown, his wife Jane, and a loyal band of Liberal activists turned the seat of Yeovil into a party bastion using a deeply local focus and tireless pavement pounding will appeal to those curious about campaign tactics. Ashdown was a savvy media worker and innovative promoter. He was the first MP to use a computer and recognised early the power the internet could have in getting the message of a party with a budget a fraction the size of the major parties out effectively.
His account of the Balkan conflict is particularly moving. He visited the area countless times in efforts to meet key actors and starve off ethnic genocide, the dispersion of people from their traditional home and end the paralysis of the international community in the face of a humanitarian disaster. Not many serving MPs can tell tales of landing at makeshift airfields while the pilot prays they aren’t shot down by anti-aircraft guns, or of being smuggled into a city under a multi-year siege in the back of a truck in the middle of night to avoid gunfire. Ashdown played a key role in brining the gruesome tales of starvation and genocide to the attention of the international community, and played a significant role in the peace process.
Paddy Ashdown has spent his life serving Britain and fighting the good fight. His autobiography is a well-written and good-humored account of his life, though sometimes excessive in detail. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in UK politics, minor parties, campaigning or how one can have a successful life and be engaged in politics.
* The UK has a 3 party system: Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats were created when the Liberal Party and Social Democrat Party, a breakaway Labour Party group, merged in the 1980s.
So who was he? Paddy Ashdown was born in Northern Ireland, became a distinguished British Special Forces Officer, a spy and diplomat for the British foreign service, a Liberal Party MP and leader, and was the UN and EU High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Balkan conflict. Not too many MPs in any parliament brought the experience Ashdown did: fighting insurgents in the jungles of Borneo, running peacekeeping missions in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, smuggling himself into Sarajevo during its siege to bring word to the international community of the humanitarian disaster unfolding there and along the way mastering seven languages.
The autobiography follows his life chronologically, and the story is kept engaging with Ashdown’s humour. The bizarre events and rituals from his military life prove to be particularly good fodder:
“Indeed, [special forces] survival training was the subject of the shortest and most effective lesson I have ever attended. The instructor, one of our Sergeants and a mountain of a man, came into the lecture room in which we were all seated, walked up to the front and put both his arms on the lectern. ‘Right! Today you will learn survival. It’s not complicated,’ he said, pulling two very ancient pieces of bread, curled up at the edges, out of one pocket of his parachute smock. He then pulled a live frog out of the other, put it between the pieces of bread and ate it. ‘If you can do that,’ he said, ‘you will survive. If you can’t you won’t!’ Then, lecture over, he left the room, leaving us with our eyes out on stalks and a lesson we would never forget.”
Reflections offered at key events and times show how he developed a liberal political orientation, which at its heart Ashdown (in my view rightly) identifies as a deep dislike of privilege. Early on Ashdown talks of inheriting his father’s disdain for Britain’s stuffy class system, and how his experiences in the army, where a wealthy background counted for naught, shaped his conviction that a meritocratic society was a good one.
But abhorring old boys clubs, nepotism and other manifestations of privilege does not lead most people to liberalism. The ranks of socialism are the usual benefactor of such an attitude, so what then makes a liberal? Observing that the state can confer privilege and disregard merit just as callously as a powerful cliché is, to my mind, often the starting point. Though a socialist might argue that the state can be reformed to remove the long-running privileges that certain dominant groups have been afforded, and certainly this has happened over the last century, a liberal is suspicious that a majoritarian state prone to rent seeking will deliver on this promise. It’s not a pro-status quo position – leave that to conservatives – but liberalism’s default stance is skepticism of the means of creating a more egalitarian society, even if the motivation is shared. Though a Labour voter in early life, Ashdown reflects he’d never thought of himself as a socialist, as he’d witnessed the more interventionist policies of British Labour governments finish in disaster. By his thirties he had developed a nascent sense that “the encouragement of responsible individualism and the creation of an effective meritocracy” was a better path to a good society than “state intervention and social engineering”. Catalysing the break with Labour was the failure of the Callaghan (Labour) government to adopt a less confrontational industrial relations policy, and a growing fear that the UK Labour Party was entirely dependent upon the unions: “I parted company with it in disgust”.
But where to go from there? “I could never be a Tory of course, and thought the Liberal Party too small, too zany and too incoherent to be worth looking at.” What’s amazing here is that a chance encounter with a liberal canvasser, who was door-knocking in Ashdown’s neighbourhood, spurred a most impressive conversion. Ashdown told the man at his door he wouldn’t vote Liberal unless he could convince him otherwise. Two hours and a couple of cups of tea later Ashdown was sold on voting Liberal.
It’s easy to look down on political ‘grunt work’ but this story really captures how even a humble member can make a difference. Ashdown’s chance encounter with this canvasser would eventually see him become a party activist, leave a promising career in the foreign service to become a candidate in a seat that hadn’t elected a Liberal in half a century, and a party leader who transformed the party from a marginal force to a serious contender capable of forming government less than paving the way for the party to enter coalition government a decade later. Maybe the canvasser never realised that he’d just recruited the party’s most capable leader (in terms of winning seats) since Gladstone, but stories like this are a good antidote to cynicism about grass roots activism.
The story of how Ashdown, his wife Jane, and a loyal band of Liberal activists turned the seat of Yeovil into a party bastion using a deeply local focus and tireless pavement pounding will appeal to those curious about campaign tactics. Ashdown was a savvy media worker and innovative promoter. He was the first MP to use a computer and recognised early the power the internet could have in getting the message of a party with a budget a fraction the size of the major parties out effectively.
His account of the Balkan conflict is particularly moving. He visited the area countless times in efforts to meet key actors and starve off ethnic genocide, the dispersion of people from their traditional home and end the paralysis of the international community in the face of a humanitarian disaster. Not many serving MPs can tell tales of landing at makeshift airfields while the pilot prays they aren’t shot down by anti-aircraft guns, or of being smuggled into a city under a multi-year siege in the back of a truck in the middle of night to avoid gunfire. Ashdown played a key role in brining the gruesome tales of starvation and genocide to the attention of the international community, and played a significant role in the peace process.
Paddy Ashdown has spent his life serving Britain and fighting the good fight. His autobiography is a well-written and good-humored account of his life, though sometimes excessive in detail. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in UK politics, minor parties, campaigning or how one can have a successful life and be engaged in politics.
* The UK has a 3 party system: Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats were created when the Liberal Party and Social Democrat Party, a breakaway Labour Party group, merged in the 1980s.
August 6, 2025
A colleague gave me this book and I’m glad they did. Honest, engaging and insightful. Paddy comes across more as man of principle and action than one of ideas and philosophy.
Class was a fascinating aspect to this book. His father moving abroad rather than face the ignominy of being unable to send all of his kids to public school. Paddy attended public school and while thoughtful about his life choices, joins the Royal Marines as an officer… of course he would, he’s a public school boy, no question of him joining as an enlisted man.
Also, the story of Paddy and his family being low on money and spending the last of it on a skiing holiday… an odd kind of poverty. At this point I was slightly skeptical about what would happen if they ran out of cash. Either way, in some ways it’s admirable.
The story peaked with Paddy winning Yeovil, and towards the end did begin to lose focus.
I’d like to have had more of his thoughts on what made the Lib Dem’s liberal, why the party occupies a vital place in UK politics. It’s far more than occupying the centre ground or engaging in local, grassroots politics. There is an important political philosophy there, out of which flows a distinct approach to policy.
He did warn repeatedly about entering coalition government as the junior partner without securing electoral reform. When it did happen it played out as he’d predicted it would.
I met Paddy while working for the Lib Dems back in 2013. Sadly too late for this highlight to make it into the book. He did come across as one of the good guys and he is missed.
Class was a fascinating aspect to this book. His father moving abroad rather than face the ignominy of being unable to send all of his kids to public school. Paddy attended public school and while thoughtful about his life choices, joins the Royal Marines as an officer… of course he would, he’s a public school boy, no question of him joining as an enlisted man.
Also, the story of Paddy and his family being low on money and spending the last of it on a skiing holiday… an odd kind of poverty. At this point I was slightly skeptical about what would happen if they ran out of cash. Either way, in some ways it’s admirable.
The story peaked with Paddy winning Yeovil, and towards the end did begin to lose focus.
I’d like to have had more of his thoughts on what made the Lib Dem’s liberal, why the party occupies a vital place in UK politics. It’s far more than occupying the centre ground or engaging in local, grassroots politics. There is an important political philosophy there, out of which flows a distinct approach to policy.
He did warn repeatedly about entering coalition government as the junior partner without securing electoral reform. When it did happen it played out as he’d predicted it would.
I met Paddy while working for the Lib Dems back in 2013. Sadly too late for this highlight to make it into the book. He did come across as one of the good guys and he is missed.
February 7, 2021
This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best autobiography that I have ever read. In an age where politicians are considered to be out of touch and self-serving, Paddy Ashdown’s story is a wonderful breath of fresh air.
Even if you are not a supporter of the Liberal Democrats, this book is simply inspiring. Paddy Ashdown did some exceptional things. He helped bring peace and stability to Bosnia, he served in the forces, he won several elections against all the odds and relied very much on his own work ethic and resources to solve very difficult problems.
Later in his career, he took up several international roles assisting the then Labour government which underlines the fact that cooperation between politicians with different allegiances is highly possible and effective. Above all else, this book shows what can be achieved when you simply set your mind to the task in hand. An inspirational story.
I’ve certainly taken my time over this book, the responsibilities of looking after two small children making it difficult to find time to read, but it has been highly engaging from start to end.
Even if you are not a supporter of the Liberal Democrats, this book is simply inspiring. Paddy Ashdown did some exceptional things. He helped bring peace and stability to Bosnia, he served in the forces, he won several elections against all the odds and relied very much on his own work ethic and resources to solve very difficult problems.
Later in his career, he took up several international roles assisting the then Labour government which underlines the fact that cooperation between politicians with different allegiances is highly possible and effective. Above all else, this book shows what can be achieved when you simply set your mind to the task in hand. An inspirational story.
I’ve certainly taken my time over this book, the responsibilities of looking after two small children making it difficult to find time to read, but it has been highly engaging from start to end.
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July 7, 2019I learned more about practical politics for an aspiring candidate from this book than any other I have read and its called engage and lots of hard work . There is also a great deal of practical wisdom of negotiations at the highest level of elected Government. In other words this is a book I really enjoyed. Paddy Ashdown certainly had a very full life. Originally a Royal Marine, working his way up from a raw recruit to Officer, then a UK Member of Parliament and eventually a Member of the House of Lords and a High Commissioner peace ambassador in Bosnia. Above all he had a great ability as a writer so that he could record his experiences and the wisdom of what he learned. This is the third book by Paddy that I have read and unfortunately there will be no more as he passed away in December 2018. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who likes a really great read of human achievement.
March 27, 2021
Well written biography by a thoroughly decent man. Motivated by his moral principles in life and politics, this is no more evident by the choice of party he made in the 70's. He could of had a far easier life by being in either of the 2 main parties but chose the harder route based on what he felt about society. I bought this as I was interested in his origins in Ireland and past in the SBS but latter is only a very small achievement and part of his life.
April 27, 2020
Although this book was written 13 years ago and a lot has change since then I really enjoyed it. The pace of Paddy's writing makes it read almost like a Boys Own adventure story. Which I suppose his life was really. For any LibDems considering the direction for the party now the chapters on his relationship with New Labour are poignant.
September 17, 2020
Wow! A lesson in how to be a good person, not just a good politician. Ashdown life's work has been dedicated to his life's work, from being the SBS, to the leader of the Liberal Democrats and helping rebuild Bosnia and Herzegovina. Throughout he has shown compassion, leadership and a drive to understand and change people's live for the better.
July 11, 2020
My notes at the time (as I wrote in 2009) "The best book I have ever read" Full of wit and at the same time descriptive, but not too much
August 14, 2021
Even if you are not a fan of his politics (though I am) Paddy lead a fascinating life and he is an expert storyteller. I was gripped
August 28, 2023
I knew much about his later life and I can now see that his early years led inevitably to the man which he became and the resilience which he had through his later achievements.
July 19, 2010
Paddy Ashdown is one of the people I most admire in politics; I voted for him as Lib Dem leader, was a candidate and election agent for the party in Cambridge in 1990 and 1991, and then was the head of the local branch of the Lib Dems in Northern Ireland for several years (a position in no way incompatible with my Alliance Party activities). A few years later I found myself running the major source of informed but critical commentary on his tenure as High Representative in Bosnia. So I felt that I knew him a little, through politics both domestic and international.
I feel I know him better now. The book takes us through the start of his life in India, growing up in the northern part of County Down (his grandfather, from Rathfriland a bit farther south, supposedly owned the first motor car ever seen in Ireland), his decision to join the Royal Marines and the the SBS, his slipping into diplomacy and espionage, and then the momentous decision to give it all up and concentrate on a political career.
He adopted Yeovil (and the Liberals of Yeovil adopted him) in 1976, and decided then that it would take three elections to win the seat from the Conservatives. In fact it took only two, and he won in 1983 despite limited local resources and spells of unemployment. I think this part of the book is particularly instructive for anyone wanting to take up a career in representative politics; it's tough for all political parties but particularly for smaller ones.
We then jump almost immediately from 1983 to 1988, when he was elected leader with my vote and many others, and was faced with a party in crisis, bumping along the bottom of the polls and often behind David Owen's continuing SDP. What interested me here was that Ashdown was always on the lookout for the best political terrain to occupy: equidistance was appropriate between Major and Kinnock, but when Blair moved Labour to the right, Ashdown surged to the centre-left. He allowed himself to get seduced by Blair's vision of a historic realignment of the British left, but once Blair had failed a couple of critical tests (most notably, binning the Jenkins recommendations for electoral reform) Ashdown decided that the project was over, as was his leadership.
The most moving parts of the book are about Bosnia; the prologue takes us to the camps of Manjača and Trnopolje, located in that long valley between Banja Luka and Prijedor which I came to know well at a later year. Always gifted for languages, Ashdown quoted pithy local proverbs - a particular favourite was 'Lako je tuđim kurcem gloginje mlatiti', which translates 'it is easy to beat down thorns using other men's pricks'. But he also did more in three years to create a sense of confidence and dynamism in Bosnia than the international community had managed in the previous decade. (All this progress, though Ashdown does not say it, was wilfully squandered by the indolence of his somnolent successor.)
The book ends with two bizarre episodes: first, Gordon Brown's attempt to get him to join the cabinet in 2007 as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and second, his near miss at becoming UN special envoy for Afghanistan - an interesting case study of what happens when all the conditions have been put in place but one key actor (President Karzai) changes his mind at the last moment. I've seen some speculation that he may return to the EU as a special Balkan envoy but I fear this may just be wishful thinking from activists rather than anything based on reality.
One constant theme from about Chapter 4 onwards is the presence of his wife Jane. Despite one well-publicised wobble, this is clearly a deep and strong political and emotional partnership, as is obvious to anyone who has met the Ashdowns in action. But what comes out from the book is that Ashdown does draw his strength from his family; as he gets formally invested as a member of the House of Lords, his granddaughter shouts down from the gallery, Je veux faire PIPI! and his sympathy is entirely with the little girl.
It's a well-written and entertaining book, and I think even those with much less interest than I have in Northern Ireland childhoods, British liberal politics, or Bosnia will enjoy it.
I feel I know him better now. The book takes us through the start of his life in India, growing up in the northern part of County Down (his grandfather, from Rathfriland a bit farther south, supposedly owned the first motor car ever seen in Ireland), his decision to join the Royal Marines and the the SBS, his slipping into diplomacy and espionage, and then the momentous decision to give it all up and concentrate on a political career.
He adopted Yeovil (and the Liberals of Yeovil adopted him) in 1976, and decided then that it would take three elections to win the seat from the Conservatives. In fact it took only two, and he won in 1983 despite limited local resources and spells of unemployment. I think this part of the book is particularly instructive for anyone wanting to take up a career in representative politics; it's tough for all political parties but particularly for smaller ones.
We then jump almost immediately from 1983 to 1988, when he was elected leader with my vote and many others, and was faced with a party in crisis, bumping along the bottom of the polls and often behind David Owen's continuing SDP. What interested me here was that Ashdown was always on the lookout for the best political terrain to occupy: equidistance was appropriate between Major and Kinnock, but when Blair moved Labour to the right, Ashdown surged to the centre-left. He allowed himself to get seduced by Blair's vision of a historic realignment of the British left, but once Blair had failed a couple of critical tests (most notably, binning the Jenkins recommendations for electoral reform) Ashdown decided that the project was over, as was his leadership.
The most moving parts of the book are about Bosnia; the prologue takes us to the camps of Manjača and Trnopolje, located in that long valley between Banja Luka and Prijedor which I came to know well at a later year. Always gifted for languages, Ashdown quoted pithy local proverbs - a particular favourite was 'Lako je tuđim kurcem gloginje mlatiti', which translates 'it is easy to beat down thorns using other men's pricks'. But he also did more in three years to create a sense of confidence and dynamism in Bosnia than the international community had managed in the previous decade. (All this progress, though Ashdown does not say it, was wilfully squandered by the indolence of his somnolent successor.)
The book ends with two bizarre episodes: first, Gordon Brown's attempt to get him to join the cabinet in 2007 as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and second, his near miss at becoming UN special envoy for Afghanistan - an interesting case study of what happens when all the conditions have been put in place but one key actor (President Karzai) changes his mind at the last moment. I've seen some speculation that he may return to the EU as a special Balkan envoy but I fear this may just be wishful thinking from activists rather than anything based on reality.
One constant theme from about Chapter 4 onwards is the presence of his wife Jane. Despite one well-publicised wobble, this is clearly a deep and strong political and emotional partnership, as is obvious to anyone who has met the Ashdowns in action. But what comes out from the book is that Ashdown does draw his strength from his family; as he gets formally invested as a member of the House of Lords, his granddaughter shouts down from the gallery, Je veux faire PIPI! and his sympathy is entirely with the little girl.
It's a well-written and entertaining book, and I think even those with much less interest than I have in Northern Ireland childhoods, British liberal politics, or Bosnia will enjoy it.
December 2, 2013
I can recommend this book to my overseas friends, as well as British, because we all could do with politicians with a background like his.
He served his country as a Marine, suffered periods of unemployment so knows how it feels to be broke. The work he did in the Bosnia area was truly wonderful.
The appendix of the book is well worth reading even if you are a reader who doesn't care a jot for the biographies of politicians! It is his appraisal of the situation in Afghanistan in December 2007 which is very interesting and probably still a valid document.
He served his country as a Marine, suffered periods of unemployment so knows how it feels to be broke. The work he did in the Bosnia area was truly wonderful.
The appendix of the book is well worth reading even if you are a reader who doesn't care a jot for the biographies of politicians! It is his appraisal of the situation in Afghanistan in December 2007 which is very interesting and probably still a valid document.
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August 9, 2011I enjoyed this biography. Paddy has had a very interesting life.
June 18, 2012
This was such a wonderful read, written by one of the most influential politicians of his era. A must read by anyone with even a passing interest in modern politics.
July 24, 2012
very good. as the title says he has certainly lead a very fortunate life
February 23, 2015
Funny, moving, compelling and beautifully written.
September 25, 2012
Paddy sounds like a genuine and ethical man. A very influential read.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews