There is a photograph of Paul setting out on the great adventure that was his life. It shows a young, bright-eyed student, arrived in Soviet Moscow for the International Youth Festival.
It was 1957, a time when hardly any foreigners ventured behind the Iron Curtain, and Paul's first glimpse of a world that fascinated him all his life.
Paul had a terrific time, and came home with a wealth of funny stories. He went on to speak excellent Russian - a rare achievement for someone who never lived in Russia.
As a very young man, he also travelled to northern Iran as a cameraman, filming the curly-horned giant Marco Polo sheep. And he returned to Iran, after joining the Foreign Office, with his wife Suzanne and young family.
Paul explored the languages of Central Asia, a part of the world absolutely off the Western map. He knew some Chinese and - I think - Sinhalese.
Along the way too, Paul found another of his great gifts, that of friendship. He made friends easily of any age or nationality - in a far-flung mountain village, or at a diplomatic party.
Paul had long been studying anything he could find about this hidden corner of Asia - now he could put it all to use. Central Asia was untrodden ground, where people still stared to see foreigners in the street.
After the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001, British Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed Paul as his special envoy in Afghanistan, where he acted as intermediary between British forces and those of the mainly Persian-speaking anti-Taleban Northern Alliance.
Paul relished the trip. His sharp, analytical brain made sense of the politics of that time. And he loved too, the ancient beauty of Afghanistan, the landscapes and the holy shrines.
This is cache, read story here
