The man dubbed the Prince of Darkness will be in Colchester later this month to give an “Audience With” at the Mercury Theatre. The Gazette met up with General Sir Mike Jackson, the former Chief of the General Staff during the Iraq war, to find out if he lives up to his nickname.

For someone who is quite well known for being outspoken, General Sir Mike Jackson is being very uncontroversial.

In fact, despite my best John Humphreys impression, my feeble attempts to get him to say anything remotely outrageous falls on stoney ground.

So what happened to the man the media dubbed “Macho Jacko” after he refused a direct order from a superior officer, and the commander his men referred to as Darth Vader and the Prince of Darkness?

He retired, that’s what.

“Now I’m retired I don’t have those constitutional constraints,” Sir Mike said. “But I’ve said all I’ve got to say about my time in the Army in the book.

“I left office nearly two years ago so it’s probably very different now to what it was then. I must admit, I do not miss the Ministry of Defence – but I do miss the soldiering.”

The book he’s talking about is Sir Mike’s autobiography, Soldier, which was released just a year after he quit his post as Chief of the General Staff in December, 2006.

Naturally, it lifted him into the limelight once again, and on to a very different circuit than the one he used to frequent.

“I had one or two publishers interested in my story,” Sir Mike told me. “A lot of my friends outside and inside the Army said I had had a good run and that I should go for it.

“There were some good parts and bad parts but I’m very pleased with the end product. It’s certainly one for the grandchildren, anyway.”

And it isn’t doing too badly for Sir Mike as well, with more than 100,000 sales so far, and a subsequent slot on the literary circuit.

General Sir Michael “Mike” Jackson was born in 1944, the son of a British Army officer.

He went into the Army, not out of pressure from his father but because it was a challenge. It certainly proved to be that as he rose through the ranks to become the commanding officer with 1 Para, then Commander of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, and in the NATO chain of command as a deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Wesley Clark.

It was in this role, during the war in Kosovo, that he earned the nickname “Macho Jacko” when he refused to block the runways of the Russian-occupied Pristina Airport, to isolate the Russian troops there.

Jackson went on to serve as Commander-in-Chief, Land Command from 2000 to 2003 and then became Chief of the General Staff during the Iraq War, which inevitably led to an even higher profile.

Towards the end of his career, Sir Mike earned a reputation for being rather outspoken about the Army, a trait he continues in the book.

When he was asked to deliver the annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture, soon after he left the Army, he took it as an opportunity to say what he really felt, heavily criticising the way the Ministry of Defence ran the armed forces, particularly the quality of accommodation and medical services it provided to servicemen and women.

“The catalyst for the book was when the BBC asked me to do the Richard Dimbleby Lecture,” he said. “It provided me with a great platform but I did have to think long and hard about what I should be saying to people.”

It turned out to be what many thousands of people in the Army were wanting to say as well.

“The theme of the book has certainly struck a chord with a great many people,” he declared.

“Since 2006, more is being asked of the British Army but, on the other hand, people forget that from July 31, the Army has gone non-operational in Northern Ireland. That has freed up a lot of soldiers and personnel, so it’s swings and roundabouts.

“Things have certainly been put right over personal kit, and if you asked a soldier about that now, I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who was unhappy with it.”

But that’s all behind Sir Mike now as he divides his time between London, where he has numerous business interests, and his Wiltshire home, where he plays a bit of tennis and potters around in the garden.

Next up is a series of “Audience with” shows, which arrives at the Mercury Theatre in Colchester on August 21.

He added: “I’ve done quite a few of them already and I enjoy them very much. It is about engaging with people and I’m always interested in what people have got to say.

“Obviously, I’m expecting Colchester to be very knowledgable. The Airborne Brigade wasn’t based in Colchester when I was serving with them. They were based in Aldershot, but obviously I have been to the town several times as part of my job.

“How is the new Garrison building work getting on, by the way?”

I tell him it is looking good, especially the swimming pool, which my children regularly use.

“That’s good,” he replies.

Prince of Darkness, my foot!