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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who Dares Wins, 8 May 2009
Paddy Ashdown once gave a friend of mine a piece of advice: "there are few sins in moving too quickly".
Reading his immensely enjoyable memoirs, it is easy to see that Ashdown lived his life by that very rule. From his days in the Special Boat Service, through a life in politics and eventually in the managerial post of his career -- as the UN's point man in helping Bosnia-Herzegovina emerge from a devastating war -- the British politician has always moved quickly, sought to take the initiative and capture as much enemy territory before his adversaries have even realised an attack was under way.
Lord Ashdown says he has led a most fortunate life. "I was a soldier at the end of the golden age of imperial soldiering; a politician while politics was still a calling rather than a profession and an international peace builder backed by Western power, before Iraq and Afghanistan drained the West of both influence and morality."
I suspect he is being a bit too modest here. Luck and fortune come not to those who wait for a propitious moment, but to those who shape and seize opportunities. As the SBS motto has it, Who Dares Wins. Daring and swiftness of action can, of course, sometimes backfire. In the end of the chapter about his Bosnia experience, Ashdown admits he probably got out of the country too early, leaving a number of crucial reforms unfinished. In the chapter about his ultimately aborted appointment as the UN chief in Kabul, the reader gets the sense that he probably assumed too quickly that Afghan president Hamid Karzai would welcome his role. But the times when Ashdown's desire for momentum let him down are few and far in between.
"A Fortunate Life" has an easy style, as do Ashdown's autumnal reflections. The reader is not encumbered by faux philosophical observations, but easily-worn insights. A great book and so far one of my favourite reads this year.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Univeral appeal, 10 May 2009
Most books take a while to get into but not this one - I was riveted from the prologue and then couldn't put it down - I laughed and cried in equal measure. In between times I was living the experiences with him. I've fallen in love with Bosnia and now want to see it for myself. What a book. Highly recommended.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Good Pastor, or How I Was Scooped By Tony Blair, 10 May 2009
Paddy Ashdown's "A Fortunate Life" is a highly readable, though distinctly middlebrow, account of a life of determined public service.
The first almost half of the book covers the "Boys Own" stage of Ashdown's life at the very end of the era in which a "Boys Own " career was possible: son of the Raj, childhood spent poaching and smuggling with his father in Northern Ireland, public school in England, house captain, victor ludorum, Royal Marines, Special Boat Section, active service during the Malayan Emergency and in Ulster, Hong Kong, MI6, a posting in Geneva. All captivating end-of-empire stuff that offers insight into the making of the man. It also provides an interesting perspective on HMG's personnel policy. Ashdown is sent on a two and half year Chinese language course and he is then deployed to .... Belfast. Next, he is recruited by MI6 and posted to the UN in Geneva. Twelve years of jungle warfare and sea-based commando operations attest to character but they are not an obvious preparation for overt and covert diplomatic roles.
In the first part of his memoir, Ashdown cites his attraction to the pastoral dimension of his duties. This, plus a deep-rooted distaste for the class privileges he had witnessed at school and in the navy, contributed strongly to his political awareness. He initially believed himself to be a Labour supporter, but a doorstep conversion by an anonymous Liberal campaigner taught him otherwise. In 1975, he resigned from his well-paid government position and consigned himself and his family to seven years of financial insecurity, spells of unemployment and day jobs which he did not enjoy, as he committed his free time to grassroots campaigning. He built up the Liberals' presence in local government and eventually converted Yeovil from a Tory stronghold to a safe seat for his party.
In 1988, Ashdown succeeded David Steel as party leader. This was the period following the merger with the Social Democrats and the further split with the insufferable Dr Owen. The impression that emerges is that the Liberal Democrats, far from being an integrated team, are a dysfunctional confederation of passionate but independent individuals ill prepared for government. Under Ashdown's leadership, the party strengthened its parliamentary position but came no closer to power. It was also thoroughly scooped by New Labour (as it will doubtless also be scooped by "David Cameron's Conservative Party" in the next general election).
Ashdown and Tony Blair were elected to parliament on the same date in 1983 (Ashdown wryly draws a comparison between his own seven year slog and Blair's effortless accession to a safe seat). With the collapse of old Labour, there was an historic opportunity to redefine the centre-left of British politics. When the two first meet at a private dinner party in 1993, Blair outlines his vision of rebuilding Labour. Ashdown wonders if Blair has the courage to follow through. Blair does and succeeds to head his party on the death of John Smith. The two leaders engage in enthusiastic discussions on some form of union to effect the historic realignment. Blair tends to stall, citing resistance on the part of Brown and Prescott, but keeps the talks active even after he sweeps to power and no longer needs Lib Dem support. Ashdown gives him the benefit of the doubt, but to the reader it is obvious that while a new alignment was the centerpiece of Ashdown's vision, for Blair it was simply an interesting option to be exercised or not depending on political opportunism. Ashdown stepped down from the party leadership soon after the election. What he thinks of his successor, Charles Kennedy, may be inferred from his almost total silence on the subject.
In the next phase of his career, Ashdown was elevated to the Lords, an institution of which he instinctively disapproves, and was sponsored by Blair to become High Representative and EU Special Representative to Bosnia Herzegovina. This was a fitting role for Ashdown. As an MP, he was passionately concerned about the region to the extent that some nicknamed him "the honorable member for Sarajevo." His courage, compassion and energy made him an effective civilian governor. His wife, Jane, was also a strong partner in this as in other stages of his career. He left the situation better than he found it, though inevitably unresolved.
There are two interesting codas to Ashdown's main career, First, Gordon Brown, about to enter No Ten, invited him to be Northern Ireland Secretary. Even though Ming Campbell seems to have been in favour, Ashdown rightly declined on the grounds that it would emasculate the party's ability to oppose the government on such issues as civil liberties. Next, he and Jane dutifully girded themselves to head to Afghanistan to take up a US invitation to serve as UN Special Representative. At the last minute, the Karzai government withdrew its support, so the posting fell through. Ashdown settled down to a semi-retirement kept busy with a portfolio of public and private roles.
Throughout the book, there are clues that Ashdown, with all his very real virtues, is not an easy person, that he can be obstinate, opinionated, self righteous and possibly bad-tempered. He writes that he regrets the impact that some of his decisions have had on his wife and two children. However, one senses that given his fortunate life over, he would do exactly the same again.
Ashdown's writing is conventional, with its share of clichés. I wish that the redoubtable Anne Warburton, from his days in Geneva, or at least his current editors, had taught him when to use "me" versus "I". Some of his many anecdotes are both corny and re-cycled - a few of his military stories have been circulating for decades. Nonetheless, he is a good story-teller, and the book is both readable and worth reading. It does nothing, though, to persuade one to even consider voting for the Liberal Democrats at the next election.
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