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Paddy Ashdown booked for literary festival

Former Liberal-Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown will be speaking at this year’s edition of the annual Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival.

British politician Lord Ashdown is booked to speak about this latest book ‘Game of Spies’.

Lord Ashdown, aged 75, has a distinguished political, military and diplomatic career behind him. A trained British army Special Forces operative, he saw active service as a Commando Officer in Borneo and the Persian Gulf and commanded a Special Boat Section in the Far East.

In 1972 he left the Royal Marines and joined the Foreign Office. As a delegate of the UN British Mission in Geneva, he was involved in the negotiation of international treaties between 1974 and 1976.

He became a Liberal MP for the Yeovil constituency in the 1983 General Elections within the Liberal/SDP Alliance and was elected leader of the newly formed Liberal Democrats in 1988. A member of the Privy Council since 1989, Lord Ashdown stood down as leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1999 and retired from the Commons in 2001.

His vast military, diplomatic and political background has meant Lord Ashdown has focused on books based on the French resistance, the Gestapo and special operations executive.

The book is a spy story set in occupied France where three men, British, French and German are involved in a lethal undercover struggle in Bordeaux between 1942 and 1944.

The Gibraltar Literary Festival will commence on October 20th.

 

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