THE former leader of the Liberal Democrats and baron of Norton-sub-Hamdon is coming to Chard for a book-signing event.

Paddy Ashdown, ex-Yeovil MP, will be at Chard BookShop from 11am until noon on Saturday to sign copies of his newest book, Game of Spies.

The shop was opened in June by Les and Margaret Gilbert as an addition to the Chard News, which they have run for nearly 15 years.

Mr Gilbert said: “Game of Spies tells the story of a lethal spy triangle in Bordeaux between 1942 and 1944 and of France’s greatest betrayal by aristocratic and right-wing Resistance leader Andre Grandclement.

“The story centres on three men: one British, one French and one German and the duel they fought out in an atmosphere of collaboration, betrayal and assassination, in which comrades sold fellow comrades, Allied agents and downed pilots to the Germans, as casually as they would a bottle of wine.

“An accomplished writer, Lord Ashdown has had an illustrious career serving as a Royal Marine and Special Boat Service officer. He was member of Parliament for Yeovil from 1983 to 2001 and still lives locally in South Somerset.”

Since the bookshop was launched it has enjoyed a successful summer, but Les said that business has dropped since the start of September.

“We are trying to support local authors,” Mr Gilbert added.

“We have quite a number in the store already, many of which are self-published. It is certainly a community thing that we are trying to do and we might even find the next J K Rowling in there.

“We see ourselves as a community and the community of Chard does want a bookshop. The support has been tremendous so far but we need a bit more.

“We are competitively priced and we have a lot of buy-one-get-one-frees and discounts on new hardbacks. In order for there to be a bookshop we need people to use it. The two businesses have been quite exciting recently and the newsagents is 50 per cent up on last year.”

See www.chardbookshop.co.uk, e-mail mail@chardbookshop.co.uk or call 07546 396969.