Educated at Eton College, Blackett served in the Coldstream Guards from 1983 to 2002, including service during The Troubles and the first Gulf War.
In the book, Blackett describes being beaten by the Head, Michael McCrum, one of the last acts of corporal punishment at the school.
[7] His books, Red Rag to a Bull and its sequel Land of Milk and Honey tell how he arrived home from military service to take over Arbigland, an agricultural estate on the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway to find a rapidly changing countryside.
[8] In 2020, Blackett became the Deputy Leader of the Alliance for Unity, a party which was founded by George Galloway to contest the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
[12] He and Galloway spoke out against what they saw as the ‘Ulsterisation’ of Scotland, Blackett linking it to his first-hand experience as a soldier in Northern Ireland.