Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.

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Radio 4. My My castaway this week is Lord Richards of Hurst, monsoon. He was a soldier for 42 years, rising through the ranks to the very top, Chief of the Defence Staff, the principal

military advisor to government, with a reputation for being shrewd, swashbuckling and

outspoken. He's now retired from one of the most successful military

careers of modern times, so illustrious he's been knighted twice. The campaigns

he led in East Timor, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan are well documented and most recently

his Council Against Military Intervention in both Libya and Syria helped guide the government through

the most complex of international strategic defense decision-making.

He's possibly less well known for his private passions, tennis, skiing, sailing, and his

action man credentials must surely be further boosted by the fact that he once spent an evening as Joan Collins as bodyguard.

He's also partial to a spot of karaoke.

Born in Egypt into a military family, he at least grew up with some understanding of the very particular

disadvantages that come with life in the forces. Just as well in 35 years of

marriage he and his wife have moved home 29 times.

He says, I see myself as a moral soldier.

I do not associate the military

with wars and bloodshed in the narrow sense.

I associate the military with doing good, bringing down tyrants with releasing

people's ambitions for their children.

So David Richards, let's talk about that for just a moment then, being a moral soldier, the notion of that.

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