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The rugged features of Britain's most senior soldier first became familiar through newsreel reports from Kosovo. As Chief of the General Staff, he is more deskbound now, but his forceful pronouncements on military restructuring and the army's role in Iraq keep him in the public eye
After Bette Davics and Medusa, hu has the most talked-about eyes in town. 'Until recently,' commented the Spectator, 'under each eye, he had hags of record dimensions. They looked like long service decorations though hardly good conduct ones - from interesting campaigns. When he had them excised, he was much teased: "Mike, you are the last chap anyone ever thought would go in tor cosmetic surgery".'
General Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff and the UK's most senior soldier, also known as 'The Prince of Darkness' and the Hero of Kosovo, wasn't too amused by this sarcastic banter. He rebutted the suggestion that he'd indulged in some vain facial nipping and tucking, and wrote hack to say so. It was, he said, performed by the NHS on the basis of medical requirement: 'The matter therefore turns on vision rather than vanity.'
When you're in the presence, it's not just the eyes that command attention. From the miraculously shiny brown Oxfords on his feet to the three rows of medal ribbons on his chest, his whole demeanour and appearance is deeply impressive. Not for nothing is he widely regarded as the toughest-looking general in the northern hemisphere. His teeth, which bear witness to the smoking of many a small cigar, are the kind of unreconstructed gnashcrs that Americans call 'English', '!"he whole ensemble is crowned by a face that speaks eloquently of the life of a soldier, lived as much in the field as on the parade ground or, latterly, in Whitehall. It's a ravaged and weatherbcatcn visage, which, as the poet WII Auden said of his own face, looks like a 'wedding-cake that has been left out in the rain'.
He's a bit self-conscious about his appearance and doesn't like being photographed. Unlike a normal MT photoshoot, which can take over an hour, Jackson bursts out of the session after eight minutes flat. Nor does he take kindly to being told what to do. When Harry...