Catherine Ashton begins this memoir of her five-year stint as the EU’s first foreign policy “tsar” and chief diplomat – her formal title was high representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy and first vice‑president of the European Commission (HRVP) – with two unexpected admissions.
One is that she disliked the job. “It was relentless,” she writes. “I visited some of the worst places on Earth … and wondered at our capacity for evil. I saw acts of bravery and kindness in unlikely places … I did everything I could to help, knowing it was never going to be enough, and worried that a better person than I could have done much more.”
