Rating: 
Summary: A Marvelous Book; Wouldn't Be Believable as Fiction
Review: This book is one of my three or four favorite books of all time. I am rereading it to keep up with current events; Macleans's adventures in Kazakhstan and Afghanistan in the 1930s give a view of this part of the world that is still relevant; he captures all the sights, sounds, and smells. The book is really three books: Part 1 contains Maclean's travels through the Soviet Union as a diplomat, spy, and adventurer in the late 1930s, including his description of the show trial of Bukharin, and his comical adventures going to see Samarkand, Tashkent, and Bokhara -- more out of romantic curiosity than for conducting any official business. A wonderful book about Russia under Stalin. Part 2 -- Maclean joins the war, even though the foreign office has forbidden him to leave his post; he does so by running for Parliament (hence loving his civil servant status), and after winning election, he promptly "runs away" to join his regiment. He ends up in the Long Range Desert Group, doing all kinds of commando work agains the Germans in North Africa. Part 3 -- Maclean becomes the liason to Tito, whom the British are not sure even exists, by parachuting into Yugoslavia. Maclean and his team supply Tito's partisans and coordinate raids that tie down German divisions. Maclean cannot keep Tito from being other than what he is -- a communist, and so the book ends a little poignantly. This is one of the finest -- perhaps the finest -- first hand account of history, ranking right up there with Chruchill's 5 volumes on the second world war. This book is told on a much lower level, but the canvas Maclean covers is nearly as broad. How this was never made into a movie with Sean Connery is beyond me. Some people maintain that Maclean was the prototype of James Bond, but there is a much more human, almost Don Quixote quality to him that makes him and his book unforgettable.
Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous Book; Wouldn't Be Believable as Fiction
Review: This book is one of my three or four favorite books of all time. I am rereading it to keep up with current events; Macleans's adventures in Kazakhstan and Afghanistan in the 1930s give a view of this part of the world that is still relevant; he captures all the sights, sounds, and smells. The book is really three books: Part 1 contains Maclean's travels through the Soviet Union as a diplomat, spy, and adventurer in the late 1930s, including his description of the show trial of Bukharin, and his comical adventures going to see Samarkand, Tashkent, and Bokhara -- more out of romantic curiosity than for conducting any official business. A wonderful book about Russia under Stalin. Part 2 -- Maclean joins the war, even though the foreign office has forbidden him to leave his post; he does so by running for Parliament (hence loving his civil servant status), and after winning election, he promptly "runs away" to join his regiment. He ends up in the Long Range Desert Group, doing all kinds of commando work agains the Germans in North Africa. Part 3 -- Maclean becomes the liason to Tito, whom the British are not sure even exists, by parachuting into Yugoslavia. Maclean and his team supply Tito's partisans and coordinate raids that tie down German divisions. Maclean cannot keep Tito from being other than what he is -- a communist, and so the book ends a little poignantly. This is one of the finest -- perhaps the finest -- first hand account of history, ranking right up there with Chruchill's 5 volumes on the second world war. This book is told on a much lower level, but the canvas Maclean covers is nearly as broad. How this was never made into a movie with Sean Connery is beyond me. Some people maintain that Maclean was the prototype of James Bond, but there is a much more human, almost Don Quixote quality to him that makes him and his book unforgettable.
Rating:
Summary: Eastern Approaches
Review: This is one of my all time top 3 books. I first read this when I was 15 and was swept up in the adventure and daring; it's something I've read many times since. Fantastically well written, it evokes a lost world of British honour, one far more real than James Bond. Talking of lost worlds I would strongly recommend to anyone reading this The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, another rip- roaring yarn.
Rating: 
Summary: The Edge of the World
Review: This is, first of all, a straightforward, though sensitively told, military adventure yarn. The inevitable clash of civilizations, the ominous background of the disintegration of the whole world in the flames of an insane war, the colourful local customs, myths, beliefs, habits and myths, the ethos of camraderie and the horror of betrayal and impending torture and worse - are all told captivatingly. As good as any action film and a lot deeper. as an old Balkan hand, I was especially interested in what the author had to tell about Tito and his partisans. You won't find this in history book, I grant you! Sam Vaknin, author of 'After the Rain - How the West Lost the East'.
Rating:
Summary: The 20th Century Renaissance Man (he writes too)
Review: Winston Churchill greatly admired TE Lawrence, who as "Lawrence of Arabia" led the Arab revolt in WW1. In WW2, Churchill equally admired Fitzroy MacLean, another well-born Brit who tied his fortunes to a foreign guerrilla warfare operation. But where Lawrence was doomed and dark and full of his own agonies, MacLean carries his charm and wit (and what Australians would call "a larrikin streak") throughout his extraordinary adventures. If MacLean had not existed he would have had to be invented. We meet him as a 20-something diplomat, subverting Stalin's spies in a series of solo explorations into the forbidden zones of Central Asia. He also observes, and astutely analyses, the infamous Soviet show-trial in which Bukharin and other heroes of the 1917 revolution met their fate. When war breaks out, he contrives to escape the diplomatic service, signing on as a lowly private. He ends the war as a general, his breast weighed down with medals from Britain, Yugoslavia, and even the Soviet Union. He is 34. This is the story of those days - racy, funny, bizarre, and full of daring. His adventures with the legendary SAS commando, engaged in lightning strikes deep in Rommel's rear in the North Africa desert are gripping stuff. Selected by Churchill himself to parachute into the Balkans, MacLean takes a frontline role with Tito in arranging the ultimate defeat of German forces there. Essential background reading for anyone remotely interested in the Balkan tragedies of the last decade or so. Soldier, diplomat, linguist, wit, Fitzroy MacLean was reputedly the inspiration for the original James Bond. Undoubtedly a beneficiary of the British class system, he was also an ornament to it. 50 years after its first publication, this remains a unique window to some of the most extraordinary upheavals of the 20th century.
| 
