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ASHDOWN**, PADDY: : THE ASHDOWN DIARIES: VOLUME ONE 1988-1997.**

LONDON.ALLEN LANE/THE PENGUIN PRESS,2000.

ISBN 0713995106.

UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to dw/dj. Bright,crisp,clean,glossy laminated,author /subject b/w portrait photographic illustrated upper panel,with raised gilt and white printed lettering,rear panel has author+wife colour photograph; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,solid and sound,near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - an unread copy? Bright,clean,sharp-cornered,publisher's original,plain black cloth bds with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip.UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,viii-xviipp(part-paginated)+6-638pp [paginated] includes contents list/table, list of plates,author preface, acknowledgements,10 chapters (year by year,1988-1997),17 b/w illus (16 political cartoons) throughout the text,16pp contemporary b/w author-related biographical photographs in 2 blocks of 8pp apiece,between pp206/7 and pp414/15 respectively,appendices (A-J),and an index.Plus [unpaginated],half-title,b/w cartoon illustrated frntis,title page,a dedication,illustrations list/table,b/w map of The Balkans - recto of which has background notes,and individual year (1988- 1997) separator pages.See also rja426513 for a SIGNED,UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn example of this same title. 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 he now reveals for the first time,an employee of the 'shadowy side' of the Foreign Office.He then went on to become an MP and leader of his party and the international community's High Representative in war-torn Bosnia.Now he tells the story of this extraordinarily varied,adventurous and dramatic life in a book which is continuously gripping, sometimes moving and often very,very funny - in short the very antithesis of the traditional political memoir. He can,and does,write with authority about topics as diverse as evading water bailiffs while fishing illicitly at night (a legacy of his childhood in Northern Ireland); 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 (he holds the equivalent of a first-class degree in Chinese,just one of his six languages); winning an apparently 'hopeless' parliamentary seat; negotiating with Tony Blair and the tragedies of a country wracked by civil war. He is deadly serious when writing about the things that matter to him - his family,his country,his political beliefs, 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.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 the Palace of Westminster. Since April 2013,and again in March 2015, and in this year too,the UK Post Office has altered it's Pricing in Proportion template,altering its prices,weight allowances,dimensions and lowered its qualifying compensation rates too! So,please contact seller,because of the heavier weight and value of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.

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