Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1991, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. My cast away this week is a politician. It's a career he's come to late in life having started out as a soldier and served as a diplomat.

Born in India 50 years ago, the son of a soldier, he was brought up on a pig farm in Ulster and educated at public school in Bedford.

At the age of 18, he joined the Royal Marines, served in the Far East, Malta and Belfast,

and taught himself Malay and Mandarin Chinese as he did so.

It was only seven and a half years ago that he became a member of Parliament, but his

soldier's energy combined perhaps with his diplomat's skill has taken him to the top at

great speed. Recently elected Front Venture of the year he's been leader of the Liberal

Democrats since 1988 he is Paddy Ashdown. Not that that was the name you were born

with which was something far more proper. Jeremy John Durham Ashdown. Did you pick up

Paddy on the Ulster pig farmer?

Well, not exactly, no. I picked it up actually when I went to school because when I went to school,

aged 11, sent across the water to the school that my father and my grandfather had been to and I may say which to my

chagrin removed my Irish accent from me I'd love to continue to have a regional

accent and I think it's part of your inheritance.

But they drove it out of it.

When I arrived there, I had a broad Irish accent

assigned as though, I come from Belfast.

And the result was, of course, they all christened me Paddy.

But did you ever come under, you must have done some pressure to change it from your

local constituency body who liked good nice proper names and good British sounding

...