This is the classic true adventure story of a man who by the pen, the sword and the diplomatic pouch influenced some of the most significant events of our era. Here Fitzroy Maclean recounts his extraordinary adventures in Soviet Central Asia, in the Western Desert, where he specialized in hair-raising commando-style raids behind enemy lines, and with Tito's partisans during the last months of the German occupation of Yugoslavia. An enthralling narrative, brilliantly told, "Eastern Approaches" is also a vivid personal view ...
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This is the classic true adventure story of a man who by the pen, the sword and the diplomatic pouch influenced some of the most significant events of our era. Here Fitzroy Maclean recounts his extraordinary adventures in Soviet Central Asia, in the Western Desert, where he specialized in hair-raising commando-style raids behind enemy lines, and with Tito's partisans during the last months of the German occupation of Yugoslavia. An enthralling narrative, brilliantly told, "Eastern Approaches" is also a vivid personal view of episodes that have already become part of history.
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Seller's Description:
Good. The pages are sun faded and slightly yellowing. We flipped through this book and didn't notice any notes or underlines. Minor shelf wear. This is a paperback copy. Fast Shipping-Each order powers our free bookstore in Chicago and sending books to Africa!
This is one of my favorite books, which I re-read every couple of years. MacLean was a British diplomat who in the 1930s voluntarily left his glamorous post in Paris for what was considered a dead-end at the Moscow embassy. He immediately set out to do what was considered impossible: personally travel to the far reaches of the hermetically sealed USSR, succeeding on the strength of wit, hubris, and above all an almost magical knack for manipulating the system in his favor (getting an NKVD escort on more than one occasion). He also had a ringside seat at the show trials of Bukharin, Yagoda, and others who had fallen out of favor with Stalin. And that's only the first third of the book. The remainder traces his subsequent WW II exploits in the Libyan desert and as England's attache to Tito's partisans hiding out in the Yugoslavian forests. A rip-roaring read.
