Following on from the great success of The 2008 English Mutual Lecture delivered by Sir Rannulph Fiennes OBE & 2009 Lecture with John Simpson CBE, we are pleased to announce the details of this year’s event. On Thursday the 21st October 2010, The English Mutual Group will be delighted to host an evening at Worcester Cathedral with The Rt Hon the Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, KBE, PC at Worcester Cathedral.

The evening will combine music, the lecture itself and a drinks reception in the nave of the Cathedral. We anticipate that, due to the ‘sell-out’ success of our events over previous years and the reputation and stature of our guest, tickets will sell very quickly.

Jeremy John Durham "Paddy" Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, KBE, PC (born 27 February 1941), is a former SBS Commando, MI6 agent, British politician and international diplomat.

Having joined the Royal Marines in 1959, serving until 1972. He served in Borneo during the Indonesian Confrontation and the Persian Gulf before Special Forces training in 1965, after which he joined the elite Special Boat Service and commanded a Special Boat Section in the Far East. He then went to Hong Kong in 1967 to undertake a full-time interpreter's course in Chinese, and returned to Britain in 1970 when he was given command of a Commando Company in Belfast

After leaving the Marines, Lord Ashdown worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as first secretary to the United Kingdom mission to the United Nations in Geneva. He was responsible for the UK's relations with several United Nations organisations and was also involved in the negotiation of several international treaties, and in some aspects of the European Security Conference (the Helsinki Conference). It has been speculated that this "cushy but dull" job was a cover for a role with MI6 but until publication of his autobiography in 2009, Ashdown refused to comment, and still has not confirmed the organisation he worked for.

Lord Ashdown was Member of Parliament (MP) for Yeovil from 1983 to 2001, and leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 until August 1999; later he was the international High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina from 27 May 2002 to 30 May 2006, following his vigorous lobbying for military action against Yugoslavia in the 1990s. A gifted polyglot, Ashdown is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and other languages. He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (GCMG) in the New Year Honours 2006.