A Fortunate Life: The Autobiography of Paddy Ashdown

Overview

Paddy Ashdown's autobiography, a Sunday Times top ten bestseller, is hailed as one of the most readable and exciting political life stories ever written.
This is the autobiography of an old-fashioned Man of Action, an adventurer, to be compared more readily to Fitzroy Maclean than David Steel. Ashdown's years as MP for Yeovil and leader of the Liberal Democrats pale alongside his time as a Royal Marine Commando, in the Special Boat squadron, as a spy, on military service in Northern Ireland and Indonesia, and then subsequently -- perhaps his finest and most heroic role, as the UN's High Representative in war-torn Bosnia. As one reviewer remarked: 'This must be the first political memoir to offer advice on the best way to execute a jungle ambush and on how to treat an open wound using red ants.'
Ashdown's appeal is that he transcends party political allegiances, and is seen as a genuinely honest and decent man unafraid to take on the toughest challenges.

Paddy Ashdown was the founding leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1998. From 2002 to 2006 he was the United Nations High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He currently sits in the House of Lords.

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