Paddy Ashdowns autobiography was hailed as one of the most readable and exciting political life stories ever written of all precisely because it was so very much more.
This is the autobiography of an old-fashioned Man of Action, an adventurer, to be compared more readily to Fitzroy Maclean than David Steel. Ashdowns 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 UNs 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.
Ashdowns appeal which explains this bookss hardback bestseller status is that he transcends party political allegiances, and is seen as a genuinely honest and decent man unafraid to take on the hardest challenges.

Jeremy John Durham (Paddy) Ashdown, politician, born 27 February 1941; died 22 December 2018. Paddy Ashdown spent the first seventeen years of his adult life serving his country as an officer in the Royal Marine Commandos, a member of the Special Boat Service and as an employee of the ¤shadowy side' of the Foreign Office. He then went on to become Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil and leader of his party, and the international community's High Representative in war-torn Bosnia. He wrote two books for Aurum: A Brilliant Little Operation, which tells the story of the Cockleshell heroes of World War Two, and his autobiography, A Fortunate Life has been hailed as one of the most readable and exciting political life stories ever written.