{"title":"Paddy Ashdown","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into the insightful world of Paddy Ashdown, a distinguished leader and writer. Explore his compelling memoirs, political analyses, and gripping narratives shaped by a life of service and adventure.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"brilliant-little-operation-book-paddy-ashdown-9781845137014","title":"A Brilliant Little Operation","description":"The complete story of the remarkable canoe raid on German ships in Bordeaux Harbour - by the man who himself served in the Special Boat Squadron. In 1942, before El Alamein turned the tide of war, the German merchant fleet was re-supplying its war machine with impunity. So Operation Frankton, a daring and secret raid, was launched by Mountbatten's Combined Operations and led by the enigmatic 'Blondie' Hasler - to paddle 'Cockleshell' canoes right into Bordeaux harbour and sink the ships at anchor. It was a desperately hazardous mission from the start - dropped by submarine to canoe some hundred miles up the Gironde into the heart of Vichy France, surviving terrifying tidal races, only to face the biggest challenge of all: escaping across the Pyrenees. Fewer than half the men made it to Bordeaux; only four laid their mines; just two got back alive. But the most damage was done to the Germans' sense of impregnability. Paddy Ashdown, himself a member of the Royal Marines' elite Special Boat Squadron formed as a consequence of Frankton, has always been fascinated by this classic story of bravery and ingenuity - as a young man even meeting his hero Hasler once. Now, after researching previously unseen archives and tracing surviving witnesses, he has written the definitive account of the raid. The real truth, he discovers - a deplorable tale of Whitehall rivalry and breakdowns in communication - serves only to make the achievements of the 'Cockleshell' heroes all the more heroic.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49506579841297,"sku":"GOR004775138","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49543462945041,"sku":"CIN1845137019G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49633938899217,"sku":"GOR004665075","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49962394485009,"sku":"CIN1845137019VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53036199117073,"sku":"GOR008119387","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845137019.jpg?v=1751249167"},{"product_id":"cruel-victory-book-paddy-ashdown-9780007520800","title":"The Cruel Victory","description":"From the bestselling and prize-winning author of A Brilliant Little Operation comes the long neglected D-Day story of the largest action by the French Resistance during WWII, published to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49515177771281,"sku":"GOR005990859","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49958935036177,"sku":"GOR006167398","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50009495109905,"sku":"GOR010677202","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50342089425169,"sku":"CIN0007520808G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51513619251473,"sku":"GOR008430368","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0007520808.jpg?v=1750736213"},{"product_id":"fortunate-life-book-paddy-ashdown-9781845134198","title":"A Fortunate Life","description":"No other British political leader of the post-war generation could have written a book like this for the simple reason that no other modern politician has led a life as varied, adventurous and dramatic as its author. He has been, in turn, an officer in the Royal Marine Commandos, a member of the Special Boat Service, a diplomat, an MP and leader of his party and an international peacemaker in war-torn Bosnia. He can, and does, write with authority about topics as diverse as evading water bailiffs while fishing illicitly at night; tracking down and destroying infiltrating Indonesian forces in the jungles of Sarawak; landing a raiding party from a submerged submarine; the difficulties of learning Chinese; winning an apparently  hopeless' parliamentary seat; negotiating with Tony Blair; and bringing stability to a country wracked by civil war. He is deadly serious when writing about the things that matter to him - his family, his country, his party, the Bosnian people whose cause he adopted when it was deeply unpopular to do so - but he also has a refreshing gift for seeing the funny side of most situations and illustrates it with self-deprecating wit and a wealth of anecdote. Although this book covers his years in politics it is hard to imagine anything less like a traditional political memoir. This is the self-portrait of a man who has lived life to the full and whose autobiography would be fascinating, even if he had never set foot in Palace of Westminster. 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. His previous books include two volumes of The Ashdown Diaries, which covered his years as party leader, and Swords and Ploughshares: Building Peace in the 21st Century. 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(The Revenue had called \"because of our persistent failure to pay National Insurance contributions\"). The party was virtually bankrupt, morale almost extinguished. In the depths of despair eleven months later, with everything apparently dissolving around him, he wrote in his diary, \"I'm plagued by the nightmare that the party that started with Gladstone will end with Ashdown\". But history turned out otherwise. On 2 May 1997, when this volume ends, the Liberal Democrats under Ashdown's leadership had been brought to their strongest position in two generations - 46 seats in the House of Commons and, as this book now reveals, on the brink of reshaping entirely the centre ground of British politics. The astonishing revival of his party (ruthlessly internally managed, as his daily thinking shows, and despite his frequent confessions of nervousness and absence of confidence) is one the great themes of this book. The account which Ashdown gives here of his negotiations with Tony Blair to bring about that reshaping, which were of an extent and intensity until now entirely unguessed at except by their immediate advisers, is the main political story which the book has to tell. \"Let me give it to you absolutely straight\", Blair says to him in May 1996. \"I repeat what I have said to Roy. The preferred option is very clear. It is to have you in the Government, even if there is a majority\". The portrait of Blair himself and of those around him is the least varnished and most three-dimensional yet published. Yet these are only two threats in an entertaining and gripping book. Ashdown shows the extraordinary pressure with which political leades now live, constantly in the eye of the media, fighting to protect some small patch of personal life, surviving on a few hours sleep per night often for weeks on end. The stresses on him and his family are almost overwhelming. racist thugs torch his car, and threaten to do the same to his house in his constituency (\"I am sacred to death of the house being fire-bombed with Jane inside\"). The news of his earlier affair with Tricia Sullivan breaks in the press. The book shows how media crises are handled, and how he and Jane coped with what was thrown at them. Finally, the Balkans. No British politician had such an intimate personal involvement with the crisis there during the 1990s or can write so authoritatively about it. Ashdown's account of coming over Mount Igman at dawn and entering Sarajevo through the tunnel underneath the airport is as exciting as anything in adventure fiction. yet contemplating Britain's role there he writes, \"I don't know which was the stronger emotion, the anger of the shame\". His condemnation of the inaction of the Conservative government is complete and unequivocal. The completion of Ashdown's account of that story, as of the domestic political negotiations which reached their high-water mark in April 1997, must wait for publication of his second and final volume in autumn 2001. In the meantime, it is clear from this first volume that Ashdown is providing us with the best and most detailed account of what it's like to be a front-line politician, and of the processes of politics in Britain since Richard Crossman.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49538964783377,"sku":"GOR001725955","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49666839609617,"sku":"GOR002282707","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50980616765713,"sku":"GOR004707472","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0140297758.jpg?v=1751322474"},{"product_id":"swords-and-ploughshares-book-paddy-ashdown-9780297853039","title":"Swords And Ploughshares","description":"The men and women of the British armed forces are currently engaged in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans in 'peacekeeping operations'. How do we avoid these missions turning into long-term entanglements, like the current disaster that is Iraq? How do we bring our soldiers home? And what do we do about 'failed states' that are havens for gangsters and  terrorists?  Paddy Ashdown fears we will soon see major wars between nation states. Many will begin as minor conflicts that will expand into full-scale wars unless the international community intervenes. The way to stop the big wars is to deal promptly with the small ones. There have been 15 UN-led interventions since 1946, and there are 74 wars in progress today. From his perspective as a former Royal Marine officer in the 1960s to the High Representative in Bosnia from 2002-6, Lord Ashdown is uniquely qualified to investigate the successes and failures of peace-keeping operations, reveal what lessons have been learned -- and what lessons keep being forgotten. (The US strategy in Iraq serves as a 'how not to' example in almost every subject area.) His discussion of the highs and lows of previous missions includes George Robertson and the celebrated 'Chivas Regal Accords' negotiated in Balkan hotel bars. He points out that planning for post-war government in Germany began in 1943, two years before the guns fell silent. By contrast, George Bush sacked the teams working on plans for post-Saddam Iraq just as US and British forces invaded in 2003. The men and women of our armed forces will be called to take part in many more of these missions in the next few years. SWORDS AND PLOUGHSHARES reveals the strategies required to avoid another Iraq-style disaster.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49547441406225,"sku":"GOR002151282","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49922472182033,"sku":"GOR007463288","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50302135992593,"sku":"CIN0297853031VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50811021459729,"sku":"GOR001892186","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0297853031.jpg?v=1751259412"},{"product_id":"swords-and-ploughshares-book-paddy-ashdown-9780753823316","title":"Swords And Ploughshares","description":"The men and women of the British armed forces are currently engaged in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans in 'peacekeeping operations'. How do we avoid these missions turning into long-term entanglements? How do we bring our soldiers home? And what do we do about 'failed states' that are havens for gangsters and  terrorists? Paddy Ashdown fears we will soon see major wars between nation states. Many will begin as minor conflicts that will expand into full-scale wars unless the international community intervenes. The way to stop the big wars is to deal promptly with the small ones. From his perspective as a former Royal Marine officer in the 1960s to the High Representative in Bosnia from 2002-6, Lord Ashdown is uniquely qualified to investigate the successes and failures of peace-keeping operations, reveal what lessons have been learned - and what lessons keep being forgotten.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49548404261137,"sku":"GOR002342436","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49639821902097,"sku":"GOR004197820","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51327269273873,"sku":"CIN0753823314G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53567664619793,"sku":"GOR001721085","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0753823314.jpg?v=1750744784"},{"product_id":"brilliant-little-operation-book-paddy-ashdown-9781781311257","title":"A Brilliant Little Operation","description":"The complete story of the remarkable canoe raid on German ships in Bordeaux Harbour               by the man who himself served in the Special Boat Squadron.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49552310108433,"sku":"GOR005284845","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49635791208721,"sku":"GOR005372585","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49733329912081,"sku":"NGR9781781311257","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49786466173201,"sku":"GOR007775759","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50092581880081,"sku":"GOR010613704","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50177417609489,"sku":"CIN1781311250G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1781311250.jpg?v=1750766417"},{"product_id":"cruel-victory-book-paddy-ashdown-9780007520817","title":"The Cruel Victory","description":"From best-selling author of A Brilliant Little Operation, winner of the British Army Military History prize and the Royal marines History prize for 2013, comes the long neglected D-Day story of the Resistance uprising and subsequent massacre on the Vercors massif  the largest action by the French Resistance during the Second World War.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49565592748305,"sku":"GOR006817522","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49684081770769,"sku":"GOR008700614","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49727227166993,"sku":"NGR9780007520817","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49993824239889,"sku":"CIN0007520816G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50916933009681,"sku":"GOR007170128","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51685891047697,"sku":"GOR008277037","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0007520816.jpg?v=1751100638"},{"product_id":"ashdown-diaries-book-paddy-ashdown-9780713995114","title":"The Ashdown Diaries","description":"The first volume of Paddy Ashdown's acclaimed diaries ended on 2 May 1997, the day after Labour gained its landslide victory and the Lib Dems won more seats than at any time since 1929, with the fateful words: \"Tony starts his Prime Ministership with a tidal wave of hope and good will behind him. A new age\". But was it? This second volume takes us from that post-electoral euphoria to the moment when Paddy Ashdown, believing he had taken his party as far as he could, stands down as leader. For four years he and Tony Blair had worked closely on a project intended to totally realign the Left in British politics. Ashdown's account reveals that having missed the chance to bring their plan to fruition immediately after the election, he and Blair tried again in November 1997 and once more a year later. It ultimately failed because of Blair's belief that he could not overcome the opposition within his own Cabinet. During their many meetings - some in the midle of the night -Ashdown and Blair built up the closest relationship of any two British political leaders in modern times. Here, for the first time, is the gripping story of their complex and secret talks on how and when Ashdown should lead his party into the government. Intertwined with this tale of high politics, formidable willpower and strong emotion are two other great stories of Paddy Ashdown's leadership: the astonishing truth behind the Lib-Lab pact in the Scottish parliament and his involvement at the very highest level, both in the field and behind the scenes, in the Kosovo war. Candid, shrewd and exciting, the diaries present a vivid inside picture of Westminster, and the most intimate portrait yet of Blair and his government.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49567414812945,"sku":"GOR002160100","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51767727096081,"sku":"GOR007717537","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52108586025233,"sku":"GOR003276979","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0713995114.jpg?v=1751295590"},{"product_id":"fortunate-life-book-paddy-ashdown-9781845135225","title":"A Fortunate Life","description":"Paddy Ashdown             s autobiography was hailed as one of the most readable and exciting political life stories ever written of all.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49576391966993,"sku":"GOR002219769","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49638296944913,"sku":"GOR003938357","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50401413923089,"sku":"CIN1845135229G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50495330877713,"sku":"GOR002940544","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52815236202769,"sku":"CIN1845135229VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845135229.jpg?v=1751186119"},{"product_id":"beyond-westminster-book-paddy-ashdown-9780671713409","title":"Beyond Westminster","description":"Amid stories of doom and gloom, in 1993 Paddy Ashdown set off to see for himself what was going on in Britain. 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But time and time again, the author was struck by the way that local communities have found ways forward, ingenious solutions to problems that from Westminster look insoluble.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49576406909201,"sku":"GOR013639959","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49578825384209,"sku":"GOR005847221","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51902870946065,"sku":"GOR005843483","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/067171340X.jpg?v=1750783720"},{"product_id":"ashdown-diaries-book-paddy-ashdown-9780713995107","title":"The Ashdown Diaries","description":"On July 1988, the day Paddy Ashdown was elected Leader of his party and this diary begins, the men from the Inland Revenue had to be hurried from the party's headquarters so he could make his first Leader's statement to the press. (The Revenue had called \"because of our persistent failure to pay National Insurance contributions\"). The party was virtually bankrupt, morale almost extinguished. In the depths of despair eleven months later, with everything apparently dissolving around him, he wrote in his diary, \"I'm plagued by the nightmare that the party that started with Gladstone will end with Ashdown\". But history turned out otherwise. On 2 May 1997, when this volume ends, the Liberal Democrats under Ashdown's leadership had been brought to their strongest position in two generations - 46 seats in the House of Commons and, as this book now reveals, on the brink of reshaping entirely the centre ground of British politics. The astonishing revival of his party (ruthlessly internally managed, as his daily thinking shows, and despite his frequent confessions of nervousness and absence of confidence) is one the great themes of this book. The account which Ashdown gives here of his negotiations with Tony Blair to bring about that reshaping, which were of an extent and intensity until now entirely unguessed at except by their immediate advisers, is the main political story which the book has to tell. \"Let me give it to you absolutely straight\", Blair says to him in May 1996. \"I repeat what I have said to Roy. The preferred option is very clear. It is to have you in the Government, even if there is a majority\". The portrait of Blair himself and of those around him is the least varnished and most three-dimensional yet published. Yet these are only two threats in an entertaining and gripping book. Ashdown shows the extraordinary pressure with which political leades now live, constantly in the eye of the media, fighting to protect some small patch of personal life, surviving on a few hours sleep per night often for weeks on end. The stresses on him and his family are almost overwhelming. racist thugs torch his car, and threaten to do the same to his house in his constituency (\"I am sacred to death of the house being fire-bombed with Jane inside\"). The news of his earlier affair with Tricia Sullivan breaks in the press. The book shows how media crises are handled, and how he and Jane coped with what was thrown at them. Finally, the Balkans. No British politician had such an intimate personal involvement with the crisis there during the 1990s or can write so authoritatively about it. Ashdown's account of coming over Mount Igman at dawn and entering Sarajevo through the tunnel underneath the airport is as exciting as anything in adventure fiction. yet contemplating Britain's role there he writes, \"I don't know which was the stronger emotion, the anger of the shame\". His condemnation of the inaction of the Conservative government is complete and unequivocal. The completion of Ashdown's account of that story, as of the domestic political negotiations which reached their high-water mark in April 1997, must wait for publication of his second and final volume in autumn 2001. 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