Eastern Approaches

by Fitzroy Maclean

Fitztroy Maclean was one of the real-life inspirations for super-spy James Bond. After adventures in Soviet Russia before the war, Maclean fought with the SAS in North Africa in 1942. There he specialised in hair-raising commando raids behind enemy lines, including the daring and outrageous kidnapping of the German Consul in Axis-controlled Iraq.

Maclean's extraordinary adventures in the Western Desert and later fighting alongside Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia are blistering reading and show what it took to be a British hero who broke the mould . . .

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Travel, Memoir, Russia, War

542 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Major General Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean, Bt, KT, CBE.

Graduate of Eton and subsequently King's College, University of Cambridge. Joined the Diplomatic Service in 1932. Posted to Paris from 1933-1937 and then the British Embassy to Moscow from 1937-1941.

Veteran of WWII. In 1941, he chose to enlist as a private in the Cameron Highlanders, but was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant the same year. He was one of the earliest members of the elite SAS. By the end of the war, had risen to the rank of Brigadier. Maclean wrote several books, including Eastern Approaches, in which he recounted three extraordinary series of adventures: traveling, often incognito, in Soviet Central Asia; fighting in the Western Desert Campaign (1941-1943), where he specialized in commando raids (with the Special Air Service Regiment) behind enemy lines; and living rough with Josip Broz Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans. It has been widely speculated that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for James Bond.

Unionist Party (Scotland) member of Parliament (MP) from 1941-1974.

Awarded a baronetcy, becoming 1st Baronet, Maclean of Strachur and Glensluain. Invested a Knight of the Order of the Thistle (KT). Appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Recipient of the Croix de Guerre (France), the Order of Kutuzov (Soviet Union), the Order of the Partisan Star (Yugoslavia), and, posthumously, the Order of Prince Branimir (Croatia).

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the UK there is a long running radio show called "Desert Island Discs", which features notable people talking about their lives. It wasn't exactly the type of thing I listened to as a young man, and the first time I heard the show properly was as a passenger on a long car journey in 1981. The guest was Sir Fitzroy Maclean, who spoke about his extraordinary life and mentioned his book "Eastern Approaches". At the time I made a mental note to read the book, and if I had realised how good this was I would not have waited 34 years to do so.

The book is a memoir covering the years 1937 to 1945. During the pre-war period Maclean was a diplomat in Moscow, which he followed with active service in North Africa, Persia, and most famously with Tito's partisans in Yugoslavia. Throughout this account he proves himself a perceptive, resourceful, witty and above all a fair minded person. He also possessed a Protean adaptability and an almost unbelievable level of sangfroid. One scene, where he is challenged by Italian sentries whilst on a sabotage mission, will leave you shaking your head at the sheer audacity of the man. Another, in which Maclean has a telephone conversation with Churchill, who uses code words that Maclean not been told about, had me rocking with laughter. In a more sombre section, the author's time in the USSR coincided with the great Stalinist purge of 1937-38. He attended the show trial of Nicolai Bukharin, which he describes as leaving a "horrifying impression" on him, but in the introduction explains how, 50 years later, he was able to dine with Bukharin's widow. With the Yugoslav partisans, he observes how the idea of communism exercised a great power over the individual, leading the partisans "to count as nothing either their own lives or the lives of others." This concept seems to me to have great relevance to the Islamist extremists of today.

Despite Maclean's own opposition to communism, his lifelong friendship with Tito, (as well as other political opponents) revealed him as one of those increasingly rare individuals capable of making a fair assessment of another person, irrespective of whether he disagreed with them politically. The world would be a better place if we had more people like Fitzroy Maclean.

[JD · Rating 5 out of 5]

An epic book about one of the most remarkable characters to fight in World War 2. The story is split into three different times of his life, the first his exploration of Soviet central Asia while on diplomatic service in Moscow, the second his time served with the SAS during the North African campaign and the third and for which he is most well, leading the Maclean Mission to Yugoslavia and fighting alongside Tito and his partisans there.

His exploration of Soviet central Asia was a real bonus for me as I got this book to read up on his time spent with Tito in Yugoslavia and was the best part of the book. He gives great insight into how everyday life was for citizens under the brutal communist rule of Stalin and all the hurdles to travelling in the Soviet Union. His description of all the places he visited are magnificent and could have been a travel book on its own.

His time spent with Tito in Yugoslavia has great detail on all aspects surrounding partisan life and introduces the reader to a great cast of wild characters who operated behind enemy lines, as well as all the politics behind the scenes of this lesser known theatre. Highly recommended and one of the better war memoirs there is.

[J.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first words I read of the author’s introduction sorted out a guilt complex I’ve carried around for most of my life. Having had, from childhood, some idea of what my parents and grandparents went through in two world wars, I’ve felt that I did nothing to earn the privileged life I have led, thanks to what they and others were prepared to do. How hard it must have been for them, how unlucky they were to have been born to war, and how hard it is to reconcile the burden of unearned privilege . . . thought I. I am writing this on the anniversary of my father's birthday, which makes it more meaningful for me.
But listen to Fitzroy MacLean, diplomat, commando, and World War II hero:
“ Looking back over an unexpectedly long life, I am constantly struck by how lucky I have been. Lucky, I would say, in living when I did. Lucky, too, in my experience of life. And lucky, finally, in living long enough to see some of the great events I witnessed or was somehow involved in carried through, not so much to any logical conclusion as to an outcome considerably more encouraging than one could reasonably have hoped for at the time .”
The whole book is like this. Fitzroy MacLean’s life as a diplomat in 1930’s Paris is just too darn comfortable. He volunteers for Moscow. Why Moscow? So that he can explore the eastern Soviet Republics, then forbidden to foreigners. This is the most entertaining part of the book; until, that is, you get to Stalin’s show trials. Ian mentioned the trial of Bukharin, former Secretary-General of the Communist International, as the most interesting section; it is utterly compelling, not only from the horror and betrayal of it all but from a psychological standpoint; Bukharin holds his own, but admits he has failed the ideals of the Party; and needs to do this, so that he dies with his vision, ideology and life’s effort untainted. Fitzroy MacLean devotes pages not only to the detail of the trial, but to a psychological exposition of it. Fascinating.
War breaks out. Fitzroy MacLean employs a stratagem to get out of the diplomatic service and into the fighting. He’s one of the founder members of the Special Air Service, operating in North Africa. With great gusto he details a mission to provide a diversion by attacking the town of Benghazi; how frustrating that his movements become known – but how? I can’t share further thoughts on this without spoiling the tale. MacLean is young – not quite thirty at this time – and his is a noble soul.
Then Yugoslavia, and Tito, at a time when the British weren’t sure if he existed at all, and speculated that he might even be a woman. Fitzroy plays down his part in it, but his optimism and valour are unflagging. By his constant efforts to obtain Allied aid for Tito’s brave Partisans, despite dreadful hardship and loss, the Partisan and the Allied Forces won the day. Fairly recently I read “Eight Hours from England” (Anthony Quayle) which mentions a story of a plane-load of American nurses whose pilot had lost his way; here was that same story (lifted, I wonder, by Quayle, who was in Albania – I don’t have the book with me and can’t check the details) but MacLean adds that the nurses walked miles in high heels. Near the end there is mention of the “raw recruit” Evelyn Waugh – Andy on GR has recommended to me his “Sword of Honour” trilogy. I enjoy making links and connections, and gaining more knowledge all the time, from a first-hand account. It’s very much from a British perspective, and there are some wonderful glimpses of Churchill. At one point MacLean tries to convey to Marshal Tito that he has given grave offence to Mr Churchill by slipping off (to Moscow) without a word, from the headquarters the Allies have provided him with.
“But Tito could not or would not see this. ‘Only recently,’ he replied innocently, ‘Mr Churchill went to Quebec to see President Roosevelt, and I only heard of this visit after he had returned. And I was not angry.’
A case of ‘tit for tat’? I haven’t said much about the humour inherent in Fitzroy’s descriptions and narrative account, but he is really entertaining. The frequent appearance of Tito’s private train, and their journeys in it, cracked me up. There’s a wonderfully moving story, too, of an old man who plays a vital part in the capture of Belgrade; I won’t spoil it by telling it here.
Here is MacLean described in the Donauzeitung:
“An adventurer, who dreams of glory and heroical deeds, in remote countries and who intends teaching Tito’s bandits with a Kodak and a bush-knife the meaning of English culture . . .”
An adventurer who helped alter the course of the war and secure the future of the Balkan states. And will we see his like again?

I'm adding a postscript to this review because while driving south for a holiday I've just seen a statue of David Stirling, who founded the Special Air Service that Fitzroy MacLean joined as it was newly formed. He gets a lot of mention, and high acclaim, in this book. The statue is surrounded by memorial plaques giving the names of those killed or injured in the SAS (so Fitzroy MacLean's name does not appear). I came across the memorial site completely by accident, on a hill just above Doune near the town of Stirling. Apparently David Stirling's family owned the land on which the statue has been erected (the estate of Keir), but he is buried on another family site by Loch Morar.



Sir David Stirling.

[Daren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edit: 29/12/16 - Best Military Biography read of 2016.

This really is an epic book. Split into three parts, it covers the early career of Fitzroy MacLean.
Spoilers below, so read it yourself first it you don't know about this book already!

The first part tells of his 1937-38 diplomatic posting in Moscow, where he volunteered to be sent after learning his trade in Paris the three years prior. As well as covering the great purge trials, where much of the communist leadership was executed, he tells of his unauthorised journeys into Soviet Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan) over several journeys, evading and somewhat mocking the NKVD's undercover officers who tailed him as best they could.
A mixture of brazenly pretending he had every right to be there, and the extracting of the goodwill of some unusual characters meant MacLean got a lot further afield than any others would have in his place. The ambitions of youth - when posted to Moscow he was only twenty six years old.

Oh his return to London, MacLean was very keen to join the war, but the Foreign Office refused to release him. Finding an obscure ruling that if elected as an MP, a foreign office man must resign, he had himself adopted as a Conservative candidate at the 1941 by-election in Lancaster.

The second part of the book tells of MacLeans exploits in the Middle East. Immediately on leaving the foreign office, he enlisted as a private in the Cameron Highlanders. He passed his basic training, and was commissioned as a lieutenant and seconded to a new elite commando unit being trained in Cairo. The project was soon shelved, so Maclean accepted an invitation from David Stirling to join the newly formed Special Air Service.

Numerous SAS tasks were undertaken - the SAS being a newly formed group, they operated below the radar, and as such were unorthodox in their approach. His work included multiple undercover entries into Benghazi, and the arrest & extraction of a (theoretically allied) Iranian General from his Isfahan palace. Libya, Egypt, Iran and Iraq were the setting for his SAS works.

So on to the third part of the book - Yugoslavia.

It was at this point of his career that he was picked to play a crucial role in Yugoslavia, where the British were concerned at a lack of progress being made by the Cetniks, who they had been providing with weapons and equipment. The British has begun to suspect that they backed the wrong guerilla army, and MacLean was sent in to evaluate the partisans, led by the shadowy figure known as Tito. MacLeans task: "simply to find out who was killing the most Germans and suggest means by which we could help them to kill more."

MacLean earned the trust of Tito, and formed a friendship of sorts, and soon was able to confirm that indeed the Cetniks were concentrating their efforts not on the Nazi's but on the partisans, and in many locations were coordinating and cooperating with the Nazis. The partisans however were desperate to engage the Nazis in a more meaningful way - having for the previous two years to rely on taking weapons and equipment from their enemy.

A part of the intrigue was that Tito, and the partisans were communist, so there was a concern that making them too strong would lead to a communist Yugoslavia in the future. Churchill disregarded this: "Mr. Churchill's reply left me in no doubt as to the answer to my problem. So long, he said, as the whole of Western civilization was threatened by the Nazi menace, we could not afford to let our attention be diverted from the immediate issue by considerations of long-term policy. We were as loyal to our Soviet Allies as we hoped they were to us. My task was simply to find out who was killing the most Germans and suggest means by which we could help them to kill more. Politics must be a secondary consideration."

Soon the British stopped all support to the Cetniks and immediately provided weapons and equipment to the partisans. Eventually,as circumstances allowed, this was followed by air support and eventually troops on the ground. The Germans, struggling with the guerilla tactics were suffering losses, and continued to commit troops to Yugoslavia - the main benefit for the Allies - better results on the other fronts.

As it became clear that the Nazis were losing, and that Yugoslavia would soon require new rulers, MacLean's diplomatic background again become useful, where he tried to assist Tito to enter negotiations with the King, who was domiciled in London, as to forming a government. Tito, holding all the cards eventually forced terms he was happy with, and which were signed off by the British and the Russians.

This is MacLeans first book, and for me is well balanced. He does not come across as an egomaniac, he doesn't hunt glory, but he writes very well. It is a well paced book of just over 400 pages, and is very readable. It is a clever book - the first part is pure travel, the relatively unknown areas of Soviet Central Asia; there is the military history; and the pure biography of the man. It crosses the three genres comfortably and well. A really enjoyable read.

Five stars from me, no doubt about it.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man who lived a most incredible life.

Reading of his days in 'Sovietstan' is simply great. Being naughty and travelling to parts not allowed: 'Who Dares Wins'. From Russia he pops up in Africa and joins up with a gang of those who dare, no surprises there, then. Picked from the line, he's asked to visit Yugoslavia and lend a hand.

Too many of my family witnessed this (not me) for it to be untrue. My great-uncle's brother-in-law was one of those in Africa that dared. He was always friendly and polite enough, but kept an unreadable face and his eyes never mirrored his smile. Apparently, he never spoke of his time in the war.

My cousin served in the Falklands, with the Paras, when he arrived home there was lots of hugs and kisses and questions. My great-uncle's brother-in-law, said, "Cold then!" He replied, "At night."

That told me heaps. I have often wondered what it is that makes one of those that dares. I am so pleased I read this.

[Christopher Bunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good galloping gallons of grief. This book deserves a whole galaxy of stars. Five stars is too paltry for such an amazing work. This is one of those rare books that I must always own. I have a battered paperback copy that I must've bought at a used bookstore. I need to find a hardback copy.

If you're interested in World War II history, Soviet history, Tito, SAS history, or that rare English bird: the landed aristocratic gentleman, then you seriously need to read this book. Eastern Approaches is the autobiography of Fitzroy MacLean, Scottish gentleman of fortune. His memoirs begin with his years in the Embassy in Paris, follow him to Moscow during the 30s, head southwest to North Africa where he joined the genesis of Britain's Special Air Service, and then ends up in Yugoslavia where he was the British liaison to Tito.

Brilliantly and humorously written, breathtaking in its insight in such unique and terrible historical periods (Stalin's purges in pre-war Moscow, the SAS operations in North Africa, and, most enthralling, the strange days of Tito and his partisans fighting the Germans in Yugoslavia), and warmly human, I can't speak highly enough about what MacLean has done with this book. It is his life. In a very profound way, his book makes me question whether or not the human race has simply evolved downwards, post-MacLean.

[^ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only on finishing “Eastern Approaches”, did I think to search the web for the author’s obituary. Sure enough, there it was, at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obi... My jaw dropped open. Phew! What a life for one so young; and what a telling reminder to us all: never dismiss the lives of the young as being too young, the middle too middle, or the old too old. What honour to be of an ilk to leave society bereft, but in a considerably better condition than when first found.

To be blessed with a first-class mind, a balanced self-confidence, sound judgement, utter and complete unselfishness, the unhesitating trust of men … all are qualities we would dearly wish to be bestowed by a fairy godmother on our own children. It is books such as “Eastern Approaches” (a very apt title) which remind how rare such a remarkable combination of gifts Fitzroy Maclean was blessed with.

Take Chapter 7, “Winter in Moscow”; where Maclean gives a grippingly vivid, analytical, eye-witness account over the course of 41 pages, of the early March 1938 State trial of Bukharin, Rykov, Yagoda, Khojayev, Krestinski, Rosengolts, three of the Kremlin doctors, Levin, Pletnev and Kasakov, and a dozen other men “who until recently had held key positions in the Soviet hierarchy.” All were accused by the Soviet State (i.e. Stalin) of espionage, sabotage, murder, and high treason. The course of the trial as described by Maclean is not read, but seen. Seen by the head-stilled eyes of the reader sitting in the theatre that is the court; hardly daring to breathe as the plot of the game unfolds, twists, as hope and hopelessness, hearts less noble and hearts more evil follow the steps of the political game which all are so very, very familiar with, a searing form pre-ordained, inescapable. Here is the blackest of prosecutors, the most awful, haunting expression of risk, of high, nay, the highest political stakes risked and lost; a loss bearing the most unthinkable of prices. What is it in our human condition that causes us to act thus? Why? One snake, one apple?

I count myself extremely fortunate to have a 1949 copy of this book (Third Impression). The publisher has thoughtfully inserted a fully fold-out map (tri-fold) in each of the three sections, enabling the text of the book to be read as it were with the right eye, whilst the left eye studies the entire theatre of action & endeavours to remember the place names, the transport routes, the military movements; and the brain meanders and ponders over such extraordinary changes seen over the course of the twentieth century.

Maclean’s turn on BBC “Desert Island Discs” is well worth listening to, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00... How wonderful to have technology that allows us to hear the to hear the voice of a forebear. Maclean chirpily chips in “I’m a great fan of nostalgia.”. I agree with him. If we lose the ability to remember and cherish our past, then we cast aside our ability to assess the present and to plan the future.

And what a life! Born in Egypt, because his father’s regiment was posted there, the young man had an ambition to be a diplomat – that being the most interesting & exciting thing he could think of doing! So after Eton he is accepted into the Foreign Office (FO), and is sent to Paris for three years; after which he requested a posting to Moscow. The FO thought him quite mad, but said that would be no problem because no one else wanted to go there!

Later on, having left the FO in order to join the military. Maclean met a friend (David Stirling) who only a few weeks before had raised a new crack fighting unit: the Special Air Services (SAS). Stirling told Maclean that he’d enjoy it. From what Maclean describes he very clearly did! How many present day members of the SAS will read this book and marvel at the very notion of being asked to join the newly-formed crack regiment; rather than having to first undergo what I am told are (in our present day) the most strenuous application procedure, intelligence and endurance tests set by any military force? Maclean’s description of World War in the dry heat of the Libyan and Egyptian deserts really brought home to me the awful extent of what is meant by ‘World War’. Yet how glibly the term trips off the tongue; that already we should mention it in the same breath, as the present awful crisis surrounding Syria.

This book can, at one level, be simply read as one of the best adventure stories ever written. Yet there is something very much more to it than just that. The touch of History with a capital “H” is to be found within these pages. It was Churchill’s personal idea (after reading Ultra intercepts) to send Maclean into Yugoslavia. There Maclean met Tito (a very shadowy figure at that time) a hard-headed Communist, a decision maker with a sense of humour. Tito’s resistance movement was infinitely more important than anyone outside had realised. So Churchill says to Maclean “Find out whose killing the most Germans & how we can help them.” Maclean (Conservative) and Tito (3rd-way Communist) became the firmest of unlikely friends. “Eastern Approaches” provides a very readable firm grounding of the roots from which inevitably sprang the Balkan War of 1992 – 1994. This 1949 book informed me on that war, and the human condition, more deeply than almost any number of television news reporters did at the time, or other commentators since.

That Maclean was his own man is not only made very plain in “Eastern Approaches”, but is also shot through the “Desert Island Discs” BBC radio programme. Maclean selects Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in E flat major. Roy Plomley asks him why he chooses that piece. Maclean economically replies straight to the point, “because I like it!” (as if to say what other possible reason could I have!) Later on in the programme, Maclean justifies his confidence that he would survive on a desert island. He observes how in Yugoslavia he lived off the land. Rigging-up a shelter, catching & cooking fish clearly present no problem. He goes on to say that were timber to be available on the desert island he would endeavour (“after a decent period”) to escape. I think he would have, too! For a book (in addition to The Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare (which come as standard) he requests “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy. Plomley, unusually, offers in addition that same title in English. Maclean refuses. He wants only the Russian text; for the purpose of keeping his mental faculties fully sharpened! Therein lies the full measure of the man whose extraordinary youth is so ably recounted in “Eastern Approaches”.

[Poppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. There is lots to learn in here. Mr Maclean was a jolly capable chap and spent heaps of time surviving off his wit.

[James Henderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in the 60's in the Time/Life edition, but did not read it until recently. Eastern Approaches is not only close to the perfect travel book; it is a lively memoir of the quixotic adventures of a diplomat turned war hero who writes with style and wit.

In the mid-thirties Fitzroy Maclean was a junior diplomat at the British embassy in Paris. Bored with the pleasant but undemanding routine, he requested a posting to Moscow. Eastern Approaches opens with Maclean on a train, pulling out of Paris and much of the first section of the book covers his repeated attempts to explore Soviet central Asia. He reached Baku, Bokhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and many other places, and though there are few pictures, you do not need them for it is a riveting story -- fighting Soviet bureaucracy; being trailed by the NKVD; negotiating with locals for food and a place to sleep. At one point he manages with difficulty to persuade the Soviets to let him cross into Afghanistan: communicating primarily in sign language he manages to obtain an escort to Mazar-i-Sharif, through a lawless area with a cholera outbreak.

Maclean was in Moscow until late 1939, and so was present during the great Stalinist purges. One long chapter is devoted to one of the largest of these, in which Bukharin, Yagoda and other stalwarts of the Stalinist regime were accused (and of course convicted) of heinous crimes. The details of the trial, and the responses of the accused, are utterly fascinating; Maclean's analysis equally so.

When war broke out, Maclean was prevented from enlisting at first because of his position as a diplomat. He eventually managed to sign up by a subterfuge, and in North Africa Maclean distinguished himself in the early actions of the newly formed SAS. He rose from private to officer rank, and Churchill personally chose him to lead a liaison mission to central Yugoslavia, where Tito and his partisans were emerging as a major irritant to the German control of the Balkans. The last third of the book recounts how over eighteen months Maclean built Allied/Partisan cooperation from nothing to a key element in the last phases of the war. By the end, Maclean was a Major-General, and a friend of Tito's.

Maclean is a fine writer, with the British gift for understatement and wry humour. The book is filled with adventures that are spectacularly entertaining: if you have any taste for history, adventure, travel writing or war-time memoirs, you would enjoy reading this book.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredible read. I took to it as I want to learn of the 'real people' of Russia. I've learned lots, and much, much more.

Mr Maclean has my respect and in my book sits alongside Sir Paul Henry Dukes and Captain George Alexander Hill.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was on my TBR pile for a long time. I picked it up in London in 2016; packed it around for a while, then chucked it onto the TBR pile where it quickly disappeared beneath the rubbish I typically read. It lay there for about three (3) years, before floating to the top. My bad.

A quote from the author’s Obit summarizes this book nicely:

"To some people, my life might seem one long adventure holiday," he said in an interview late last year, "blowing up forts in the desert, clandestinely parachuting into guerrilla wars, penetrating forbidden cities deep behind closed frontiers."

The book is a 20th century memoir, which is very different from the contemporary autobiography. A memoir covers one specific aspect of the writer's life, not their whole life. Not many memoirs are written any longer. (They’ve gone out of fashion.) The author was an educated (Eton and Cambridge) English gentleman from a Scots military family. He was born after the First World War, but came of age in the interregnum between the Wars. The book describes how a man with the background and training of the 19th Century was forced to and successfully adapted to the 20th Century.

My copy of the book was a hefty 575-pages on very thin paper. The original copyright was 1949.

Writing was good. It is of the style and quality I’ve come to recognized of the educated English upper and upper-middle classes pre-WWII. Typical of this style, I was sent to the dictionary on several occasions. A particular favorite was: trencherman . Editing was to the high standard I’ve come to expect from Penguin.


The period of the book covered was about 15-years from the early 30’s to the end of WWII in in Europe. From the detail, diary entries were obviously used in its writing. (Gentlemen kept diaries—its what they did.) The book was divided into three (3) distinct parts: 1932-1941 in London (Britain), Paris (France), Moscow (Russia) as a diplomat; 1941-1943 in the Western Desert Campaign (Egypt and Libya) and Persia (Iran) as a soldier; 1943-1945 in the Balkans Campaign (ex-Yugoslavia and Italy) as the head of a military mission.

Maps included in the book were 'basic', although they were period. (The names of locations have changed over time.) I took Googlemaps trips to most of the locations mentioned in the book. Some of them were no longer recognizable, although many were to a greater or lessor extent.

I appreciated all of the chapters. However, it was his descriptions of the locales and their inhabitants ahead of his martial adventures that I enjoyed the most. His descriptions of people including historical figures were particularly good. Oddly, if their name was mentioned they had merit. The few folks he had issue with were not identified by name. Unfortunately, I was never able to decode his sly appreciation of the ladies in his writing. A gentleman never tells. I also had a problem with his stiff upper lip and soldier on attitude. It was difficult to gauge how perilous a situation was, or to what extent he and his fellows were embracing the suck. This also applied to his witnessing of war time atrocities, which seemed understated.

Every man is a hero in his own story. To a certain extent autobiographies and memoirs are self-serving. Rarely did Maclean ever admitting to any flaws. The only one I recall, is him despising the use of the telephone. A chapter in the book describes a meeting brokered by Maclean with PM Churchill and Marshal Tito in Naples, Italy sometime in August, 1944. Maclean wrote that it went well. In Churchill biographies and histories of the Balkans Campaign it was described as not being a pleasant meeting at all. I can only wonder how many other scenes in the book were sanitized?

I enjoyed reading this. It appealed to my fetish for writing that bridges the 19th and 20th Centuries. Maclean was a very lucky guy. (He had a knack for being in the right place at the right time.) He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, to the right parents. He was mannered and charming. He took risks. He leveraged ‘relationships’ rather than “going through channels”. He had a facility with languages. Folks followed him because he moved with confidence. (He never wrote that, but its clear.) He also was flexible, changing with the time and situation. I imagine quite a few folks (whose names he never mentioned) loathed him. He also wrote rather well about places and people that no longer exist. The book hit my: history, travelogue, and adventure buttons at the same time. In places it seemed more like a 19th Century action-adventure novel. What is most amazing is that (most of) it actually happened. Recommended.

[Nooilforpacifists · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, amusing, in some places terrifying account of a British diplomat-turned-soldier whose curiosity nearly kills him, repeatedly. Ensconced as First Secretary in the British Embassy in Paris, he asks, out of boredom -- and a longing to see the East -- for a transfer to the Embassy in Moscow. Easily arranged: who wants that post?

Not long after singing praises of sledding to his woodland dacha, Maclean gets a courtroom seat for one of Stalin's largest show-trials: Bukharin, friend of Lenin and former top theoriest of the Party; Lenin's successor Rykov; Yagoda, recent head of the KGB's predecessor organization; Krestinski, ex-head of Foreign Affairs, and others. The first drama occurs when Krestinski denies his previous confession on the witness stand; a day later, a greyer, thinner version of the same man recants his recantation.

Bukharin is tougher. Although admitting "full political and juridical responsibility" for the crimes, he denies -- convincingly -- each specific claim (murder, sabotage, etc.) in the charges; rather, he admits only to differing ideas about policies. Years before publication of "Darkness at Noon," a young Maclean wonders how this could be?



"[A]ll were party members, deeply impregnated with Communist dogma, their conduct ruled by a Party Line. For them, any deviation, however slight, was a crime. To disagree, even mentally, with the leaders of the Party on some minor point of doctrine was as unforgivable as to commit a seemingly greater crime, as to plan their physical destruction. …

Already, the problem of guilt and innocence was reduced to a simpler form. In the past, when political discussion had still been admissible, Bukharin and Rykov, Krestinski and Rakovski had all differed openly from Stalin. … Disapprove. There, already, was enough to go on. Enough for Stalin, at any rate."




The rest of his time in the Soviet Union is spent satisfying Maclean's "jones" for the East. He wants to see Tashkent and Samarkand. He wants to travel to Armenia and Georgia. He wants to cross the Afghan and Chinese frontier. All of these are "forbidden zones" to European Russians (much less to foreign suspected spies), yet -- dragging his KGB minders -- he manages all but the last. I particularly enjoyed him out-pacing the KGB by hundreds of yards when walking, then stoping to let them catch up.

When war comes, he wants to join up--but Foreign Office regulations prohibit it. Unless, he discovers after careful reading, he becomes an MP. So Maclean runs as a Tory for a by-election in Lancaster--a town he's never visited. His campaign speech consists of telling voters, frankly, he has no intention of returning because he's volunteering. He wins, gets out of the F.O., goes through Basic Training as a Lance Corporal, 'till he's pulled into Special Forces as a Lieutenant. After some fantastic, and fantastically hair-raising, adventures among the Desert Rats trying behind-the-lines sabotage, someone decides he's just the guy to see whether Tito is real and deserves British support--notwithstanding that Yugoslavia is about the only country Maclean never visited.

The second half of the book is about the mission to Tito. Maclean becomes a headline: "MP Parachutes into Partisans". He fights the Nazis alongside Tito, including some close calls, and gets the Partisans air-dropped weapons and supplies. He's pulled into conferences with all the great figures, up to and including Churchill (and son Randolf is under his command). Remember, this was part of Winston's "Balkan" strategy about which U.S. General Marshall balked. With the exception of one polemic chapter trying to detail Tito's character that (ultimately) added nothing, "Eastern Approaches" is a hidden gem of a read.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was turned on to Eastern Approaches while reading about the Soviet purges of 1937-1938. MacLean was a young British diplomat who requested transfer from Embassy Paris to the embassy in Moscow; while there, he attended each day of the Bukharin show trial which receives detailed description and analysis in the book. MacLean also used his leave time to strike out on unofficial, NKVD-dodging trips through the Caucuses and Central Asia, with Samarkand and Bokhara as chief destinations for his journeys.

Once WWII broke out, MacLean got out of the foreign service by running for and winning a seat as MP. He then went into the ranks and climbed quickly to Brigadier (?!?), engaging in action on the North African front, much of it clandestine. After an interesting kidnapping mission in Iran, MacLean was handed the military cum diplomatic mission to Tito and the Partisans, then scrambling through the wilds of Bosnia ahead of Nazi troops and local collaborators.

The book was entirely worth the read, if only for the slightly self-conscious but hugely entertaining voice of MacLean. There is a certain boyish enthusiasm in his prose where even long and desperate marches with guerilla forces or terrifying drives through endless desert without water take on the flavor of a Boy Scout adventure. His political analysis also shines through as measured, pragmatic, and with an eye to the unexpected opportunity.

It was disappointing to see a mind sharp as MacLean's descend into trite stereotypes and occasionally, more virulently racist depictions (as seen in an encounter with an Italian Somali soldier in Benghazi). His laziness in attributing behavior to the inherent nature of the Russian "race" muddied up otherwise clear-eyed observation of ordinary Soviet people's way of coping with extraordinary oppression. For the most part, however, for a man of his background and class, he clearly had an ability to relate to people on their own terms and plunge into new environments and relationships with enthusiasm. His extraordinary linguistic skills left me sighing in envy, as well- dropped behind enemy lines and he still takes to Serbo-Croatian like a duck to water...

There was an interesting silence in his chapters on his time in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia- he writes very little on atrocities committed against civilian populations and the little he does write is sanitized (for example, the story of the unfortunate child Ginger). Given the ferocity of the Ustashe regime's commitment to final solution-style ethnic cleansing, it was strange to find MacLean's narrative largely devoid of information on the subject (at least until the end and the capture of Belgrade). At the close of his narrative he casually mentions a conversation with a Red Army soldier on the Soviet man's plan to execute captured German and collaborationist soldiers, a conversation later confirmed by piles of soldiers shot execution style. I cannot begin to guess what such narrative silences indicate- lack of knowledge at the British mission to the Partisans on the full extent of the situation? Hesitancy or inability to write about the carnage? Certainly the grim reality of life for many in the former kingdom of Yugoslavia would have been an awkward fit with MacLean's witty, breezy, detached narration.

The cameos of places I have visited, such as the large fresh water stone cistern in Siwa, Egypt, where I spent an afternoon tossing lemons back and forth with local kids while splashing around, were arresting in how little had changed. The depiction of places still unknown to me were tempting- do I have time to learn Russian?

Despite his repeated disparagement of the slow and grinding inevitability of a diplomatic career, MacLean clearly always retained the framework and approach of a Foreign Office type. Despite his relish in knocking out tactical victories one after the other, it was in his strategic vision and his rather amusing access to people no less than Churchill that clearly left its mark on the course of the war in the Balkans. Still, MacLean's love of action for the sake of adventure was clearly a defining personality trait- apparently he and his wife were driving relief supplies into the former Yugoslavia in a pause in the Balkan wars of the 90s, despite being in their 70s at the time.

Well worth the read:

"On the evening of March 12th Bukharin rose to speak for the last time. Once more, by sheer force of personality and intellect, he compelled attention. Staring up at him, row upon row, smug, self-satisfied, and hostile, sat the new generation of Communists, revolutionaries no longer in the old sense, but worshippers of the established order, deeply suspicious of dangerous thoughts. Watching him standing there, frail and defiant, one had the feeling that here, facing destruction, was the last survivor of a vanished race, of the men who had made the Revolution, who had fought and toiled all their lives for an ideal, and who now, rather than betray it, were letting themselves be crushed by their own creation."

"In the General's bedroom I found a collection of automatic weapons of German manufacture, a good deal of silk underwear, some opium, an illustrated register of the prostitutes of Isfahan, and a large number of letters and papers which I took back with me to the Consulate."

"Mr. Churchill's reply left me in no doubt as to the answer to my problem. So long, he said, as the whole of Western civilization was threatened by the Nazi menace, we could not afford to let our attention be diverted from the immediate issue by considerations of long-term policy. We were as loyal to our Soviet Allies as we hoped they were to us. My task was simply to find out who was killing the most Germans and suggest means by which we could help them to kill more. Politics must be a secondary consideration."

"Entering the cave in a small boat, we all stripped and bathed, our bodies glistening bluish and ghastly. Almost everyone there was a Cabinet Minister in one or other of the two Jugoslav Governments, and there was much shouting and laughter as one blue and phosphorescent Excellency cannoned into another, bobbing about in that caerulean twilight. Then we emerged once more into the sunlight and sea breezes and lunched off of lobsters and white wine. It was choppy going home and several of the party were sick."

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

A TRULY FANTASTIC BOOK! Fitzroy Maclean writes very fluidly and engagingly of his experiences, first as a member of the British Foreign Service in the Soviet Union between 1937 and 1939, and of his leaving (not without difficulty) the Diplomatic Service for the Army, where he rose from the rank of Private to Brigadier, having fought with the SAS in North Africa and later as head of the British Military Mission in Yugoslavia, where he became friends with Marshal Tito and fought alongside the Partisans. And to think: Maclean did all this by the time he was 34! (He lived to be 85.)

[John Farebrother · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books of all time. The author tells the inside story of the wars in North Africa and the Balkans, among other things. In addition to his own heroic exploits, which he recounts rather modestly, he describes with humanity, compassion and humour the various personalities he encountered on his path, including Tito. Personally, it was this third part of the book, dealing with the Balkans, that was of greatest interest. It's a revelation for anyone who was there during the 1990s war, as was I. Anyone interested in the Balkans should start here.

[Checkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific memoir and travelogue. The book covers approximately eight years in MacLean's life. His years with the Foreign Office in the U.S.S.R., his time with the Special Air Service in North Africa and Iran and finally heading up a military mission to assist Tito and his Partisans in Yugoslavia in the last two years of World War II. MacLean followed in the footsteps of many famous British gentlemen explorers, soldiers and diplomats (often all at the same time). He had an insatiable appetite for travel (an appetite that would stay with him until his death in the 1990's) tirelessly exploring wherever he happened to find himself at (I envy his energy).

"Eastern Approaches" is a fascinating read. I've never been a big fan of travel literature (travelogue), but MacLean wrote a brilliant account that transcends the genre. Perhaps it's because his memoir takes place during World War II and involved far more than just travel. This is an account of a man who found himself right in the thick of things which adds some spice to the book. It's a first-person account and immensely entertaining. I really can't think of any negatives. Satisfying read that functions as a travelogue, memoir, historical account, adventure story and even a political history. I have no trouble recommending "Eastern Approaches".

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fitzroy MacLean's adventures make those of James Bond pale into insignificance.

I read this long ago when I was still at school, but remember it with great fondness.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fitzroy Maclean's war was World War II, and to the extent that a single human can have an over-sized effect on the outcome, he did. He fought with irregular troops in Africa early on, with not much to show for it, but then found himself in Tito's Yugoslavia, and his work there with the partisans can really be said to have saved their bacon, or at the very least hastened Germany's retreat from the Balkans. And that did have an effect on the overall war, by draining German strength that would have been useful elsewhere.

The advertising for the book describes Maclean as the real-life model for James Bond, but his true strengths were in connecting with people in very unusual surroundings and enlisting them in the Allied cause. He also showed an extraordinary knack for getting around Soviet Russia in spite of the secret police; this ability makes for fun reading.

The book is a masterpiece of classic British understatement, and you come away wishing that you had been able to meet this gifted man and share a whiskey with him while he regaled you with war stories. Those would have been worth listening to -- as this book is worth reading to get an insight into the increasingly distant mindset of the generation that fought and died in WWII.

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that tells a very interesting story of a remarkable man. Fitzroy MacLean was a British Foreign Service worker in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and his book offers a very detailed and well-written account of a bizarre and scary place. He refused to allow the tight control that outsiders were subject to stop him from exploring Southern Russia and Central Asia, places where life had barely changed since the Late Middle Ages.
After he left the U.S.S.R., he volunteered for the British Army and was sent to North Africa. He became a part of the S.A.S. and went on missions all over North Africa, Iraq and Iran. He subsequently became head of the Allied Mission to Yugoslavia and a friend of Tito.
It is a remarkable adventure story and not at all in the same vein as the idiotic History Channel style World War II books that have swamped America in the last few years. If you want an intelligent, keenly observed, insider's account of a massively important era in modern history, and a thrilling story, read this book.

[Peter Ellwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoroughly - almost unexpectedly - good read. I’m not sure what you’d call it –it’s not quite a diary of the things he did; it’s often too vague to be an intelligence account of his travels; and it’s not an autobiography. The tone varies noticeably between each section too – more travelogue in Russia, more military report in Yugoslavia. But whatever it is, it zings along in entirely cheery and boisterous fashion, and is remarkably entertaining along the way.

It consists of accounts of three separate short periods in his life: travels in Central Asia during his time in the Moscow Embassy (1937-38); tales of derring-do behind enemy lines in the north African desert; and tales of even more derring-do in Yugoslavia in 1943-4.

Many reviews and blurbs tend to claim a supposed inspiration for James Bond: Fitzroy Maclean as a kind of ur-Bond. But for me, that doesn’t entirely explain the book’s considerable attraction. For me, the link goes back further, to the Biggles and Boys’ Own adventures of my childhood, but with the major distinction that this was for real, Maclean really was risking his life in the process.

Some of it lies in his understated, jolly-good-chaps tone. You can just imagine him turning round in the cockpit, Biggles-like, and shouting to Ginger “splendid shot old chap, you jolly well biffed the Hun there!” It all recalls the cheerily buoyant war movies of my childhood, with actors like John Mills or David Niven (the original Bond of course) preening their immaculate moustaches and somehow avoiding all the bullets. But this time, again, you know the bullets were real.

The understatement is often seductive, but sometimes mildly misleading, and occasionally a bit calculated. For example, how did a greenhorn diplomat in Moscow secure so much leave that he could spend an almost unlimited amount oƒ time wandering around the USSR’s southern underbelly? He never actually says he was a spy, but one does wonder how else the ambassador would have allowed him to absent himself from his desk for so long. And how, writing in 1949, could he possibly remember in detail each meal he ate in the villages of Serbia five years before? This isn’t just nit-picking because, for me, it called into question some of the other details that he reports in his very gentle how-I-won-the-war tone.

All the same, that same understatement does exude a wonderful Bond-like calm and confidence. I have had the privilege of visiting a number of the places he mentions, two generations later: and I can say with assurance that it’s still slightly hair-raising to travel around them alone. How he did it, aged 25 or so, with the USSR in full flow, is truly remarkable. Jumping blind into enemy territory in Yugoslavia ought to have been horrifying, but he treats it almost as a bit of a lark.

A couple of examples of taking it a tiny bit too far. For example:

“As we negotiated rough hairpin bends in the dark at a steady fifty miles per hour with a wall of rock on one side and a rushing torrent at the bottom of a precipice on the other I wondered sleepily how the collar-stud, which occupied so important a position in the steering gear, was standing up to the strain. “

Or again, at the end of a particularly gruelling, filthy expedition behind enemy lines:

“We swam till we were tired. Then we came in and dried ourselves and put on the clean shirts which each of us had kept rolled up in his pack against just such an occasion as this.”

Really Fitzroy, really? You kept a crisp and freshly-laundered shirt ready for weeks as you crawled through the undergrowth, just in case a dip in the Adriatic popped onto the agenda? I lost count of the number of times he raced to dodge German bullets, hurled himself into an escape plane “and fell asleep immediately”

But this is nit-picking to a degree. One shouldn’t challenge true Boys Own adventures in that way: of course the hero had a clean shirt ready, just in case. And some of the slight otherworldly understatement springs from a genuine modesty, at least in his presentation. He leaves it to the reader to join the dots and conclude that he was not just any old private in the army (not too many rose to Brigadier in the space of five short years, and chatted to Churchill at odd moments). He merely mentions the jolly wheeze of becoming an MP in order to avoid working in the Civil Service (and indeed never mentions that the seat in question was so to speak his ancestral seat, as his father owned half of Scotland). And if you ever wondered how he managed to rub shoulders with the good and the great so very easily, he never once mentions his Eton and Cambridge education, which probably helped.

The book has genuine historical value too, especially the first and last sections. His direct, eye-witness account of the last of the Soviet show trials is memorable if only for recording Bukharin’s actual words; and his obviously close relationship with Tito and the Partisans is probably the best historical evidence on record of the rise of Tito, and Britain’s part in it. It might be wise to tone down some of the local colour that he mixes in, but it’s still remarkable stuff.

All the same, to end on that note would miss the exhilaration of the man. I mark it down a couple of stars as a book because it fails one or two obvious literary ‘tests’. But what you get instead is a marvellous sense of a man who bounced through the war as a real action hero. He may have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he certainly made the most of it, and he left me thinking that those clichéd qualities of the mid-century British gentleman – loyalty, fair play, keeping one’s head at all times – weren’t just an illusion. Good fun.

[Alfred Searls · Rating 4 out of 5]

You couldn’t make up Fitzroy MacLean’s life story. Oh you could try of course, but no one would believe you. A child of the old Scottish gentry; born in Cairo, raised in Italy; educated at Eton and Cambridge before completing his studies in Germany as the old Weimer Republic gives way to the Third Reich. See what I mean? But hang on, wait until you hear about the man’s career - Diplomat; soldier; soldier and Member of Parliament; SAS officer and MP; Brigadier, Diplomat and MP; and finally in 1947 whilst still an MP he gets promoted to Major- General – at the age of 35.

All that only takes us up to where his splendid 1949 memoir ‘Eastern Approaches’ leaves off; but it begins with his departure from a comfortable two year posting in Paris to take up his new job in the British Embassy in Moscow. At the time friends and colleagues thought he was mad to give up one of the plumb postings in the diplomatic service, in favour of working in what was thought of, somewhat ironically, as the diplomatic version of Siberia. But as distracting as embassy life in Paris was, it was never going to be enough to occupy someone with MacLean’s energies and taste for adventure.

Although I don’t doubt him in his stated reasons for volunteering to go to Moscow, I must confess I have long harboured a suspicion that MI6 may have had a hand in sponsoring and smoothing over his speedy transfer; especially given his extraordinary penchant for long range travel and exploration in the highly secretive Soviet Union. Whatever the case we are soon accompanying him on one of three great journeys he undertakes during his time in the USSR; and I defy anyone whose soul contains even a trace of the romantic not to fall in with his boyish enthusiasm for forbidden and difficult exploration. His own Golden Road takes him to places no outsider had visited for decades, places of magical, mystical memory; Bokhara and Tashkent; Samarkand and Chinese Turkestan (I know, I had to look it up too!).

For me his description of his wanderings rivals that of Patrick Leigh Fermor in his great travel memoir ‘A Time of Gifts’ – but it is in his description of the great Stalinist show trials of 1938 that MacLean comes into his own. His is an important eye witness account to the bizarre, savage theatre of repression that gripped the world in the spring of that year. Stalin’s great terror was at its height and the victims of his ruthless paranoid desires now included old comrades such as Nikolai Bukharin, whose charge sheet was, in common with the rest of the accused in ‘The Trail of the 21’, wholly ridiculous. MacLean’s account is gripping and his forensic analysis of why people with impeccable Bolshevik credentials should have been so willing and convincing in their admissions of guilt is both shrewd and fascinating. Incidentally, for an excellent literary analysis of this process I can’t recommend highly enough Arthur Koestler’s superb novel ‘Darkness at Noon’.

On the outbreak of war MacLean finds himself in a quandary. Desperate to join up but stymied by the fact that he’s in a reserved occupation he hatches an audacious plan. Using a little known and ever so slightly spurious codicil he points out to his employers that whilst he can’t resign to join the army he can do so to pursue a career in politics. He promptly hands in his resignation and catches a cab to the nearest recruitment office where he enlists as a private. After months of square bashing and peeling potatoes he is commissioned, but by this time the Foreign Office is starting to get the feeling that it’s been had and begins to make noises about his lack of effort in pursuing a political career. So, he promptly gets himself elected as MP for Lancaster. Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

Not long after this the Right Honourable Fitzroy MacLean is posted to North Africa where he serves with some distinction with the newly formed Special Air Service. Throughout the book whenever he writes about those situations in which he undergoes physical hardship and faces personal danger, MacLean routinely writes in a very British and understated way. But the fact is the fighting in the Western Desert was hard and the men of the SAS and LRDG had to face extremes of climate that were often every bit as dangerous as Rommel’s Afrika Korps, and MacLean saw more than his fair share of it.

Following on from his exploits behind enemy lines the Honourable Member for Lancaster finds time to kidnap a troublesome Persian General before being personally selected by Winston Churchill to become the head of the Allied Military Mission to the partisans fighting the Axis forces in Yugoslavia. Under his auspices the support for the partisans goes into overdrive and the German Army is forced to deploy more than seven divisions just to hold onto the strategically important parts of the country.

I think dear reader that by now you’ve got the picture; it’s an extraordinary account of an extraordinary man. Thankfully he was also a good writer and he holds your attention as he passes you seamlessly through the many fascinating episodes in this 12 year period of his life.

On a personal note, as I write this my copy of ‘Eastern Approaches’, which was my father’s before me, sits in front of me on my desk - tattered, battered and beloved. And in the way that only a book can for the bibliophile, it has happily occupied a part of my soul from which no amount of partisans or NKVD troops could ever hope to shift it … thank you dad.

[Maya Chhabra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tripartite memoir of intrigue, travel, and military adventure, relating the author's experiences as a diplomat in the 1930's USSR, as a member of the early SAS (part of the UK Special Forces) in WWII North Africa, and finally as an important liaison to the Partisans in Yugoslavia, his two previous experiences providing the background for this capstone mission.

The early part of the book is largely concerned with his travels in Soviet Central Asia. This section was probably much more interesting when the area was largely closed to foreigners; his descriptions are fairly stereotypical, though as someone who knows little about the area, they had some interest. Maclean can be quite the stereotypical Englishman himself in his generalizations and attitude to foreigners, at one point saying he's always found it helpful to shout when there's a language barrier. However, this isn't so bad as it could be, as he is genuinely interested in the culture and history of the areas he visits throughout the book.

This first section is the dullest, but it does show two strengths that continue throughout the book- his descriptions of logistics, of how to get places, dodge pursuit, and carry supplies, and his capsule histories of the individuals he meets on his journeys, which are interesting and telling. It also has a great set-piece description of the Trial of the Twenty-One and Bukharin's confession. It's clear from the narrative why it was this particular speech that inspired Darkness at Noon, though given that the novel came out before this book, I wondered if there was some retrospective influence on Maclean's conclusions. Either way, it's a tense, atmospheric piece of writing.

The second section was surprisingly interesting to me as a person who has little interest in the military. It mainly describes two raids on Benghazi (a city which a few years ago was a lot less famous!). He shows the truth of the old proverb that combat is ninety-percent waiting and ten-percent sheer terror. The amount of preparation and travel time behind brief and unsuccessful or narrowly successful raids is amazing, as is the way in which missions that fail in their original goals can still contribute positively to the larger strategy. This is the most fast-paced, absorbing section.

The final section is the most detailed and interesting. Maclean parachutes into Yugoslavia as an envoy to the Partisans (as an Italian, I'm accustomed to calling all resistance groups "partisans," and so find the Yugoslavia usage in which it refers to a specific, Communist-led group confusing), and helps persuade the British to switch support from another, less-effective resistance group, the Chetniks, to the Partisans (though according to Wiki, intel from decoded signals was the main factor in the switch in support). He then coordinates a massive support effort for the Partisans, staying in Yugoslavia with them for most of the time till the fall of Belgrade. This section is fascinating for obvious reasons, though it's clear that Maclean idealizes the Partisans and especially Tito (understandably given the circumstances under which he interacted with them). The descriptions of the Balkans are also a bit stereotypical. There's another interesting set-piece on the history of Yugoslav dynastic rivalry, with lots of dry humor. The earlier thread about logistics becomes deeper and the capsule histories of various Yugoslavs he meets add interest ("It was an exaggeration," complains a passed-over prince about the scandal that knocked him out of the line of succession, "to claim that he had killed his valet."). This section is a bit slower than the previous one, being about a long, slow build-up rather than a specific mission. But it serves as an appropriate culmination for the entire book, what all the previous elements had been leading up to.

The book is well-written and well-structured, with the ending bringing the story full circle. Its main weaknesses are that the least interesting section comes first, that Maclean's descriptions can be overly stereotyped or idealizing and thus less interesting, and that there isn't much "character development" (in quotes as this is nonfiction) with it being hard to keep track even of recurring characters. It's clearly a personal memoir rather than history with an attempt at objectivity, but in general I find memoirs more interesting. I wouldn't reread this book and it didn't live up to my high expectations, but I'm glad I read it and recommend it to those interested in irregular warfare and in WWII resistance movements.

[Gert De Bie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Langzaam kwam de lange trein op gang en reed het Gare du Nord uit."

Zo begint voor Fitzroy Maclean in 1937 een trip naar Moskou als Brits diplomaat en voor de lezer een indrukwekkend en compulsief leesbaar verslag van zijn wedervaren in het hart van de Europese diplomatie en militaire besluitvorming aan de vooravond van en tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog.

"Ik was vijfentwintig. Toch begon ik al wat vast te roesten in mijn gewoonten; misschien, overpeinsde ik in mijn zeldzame momenten van introspectie, werd ik zelfs een beetje zelfgenoegzaam."

Gaat Maclean even later verder. Getuige meteen van zijn ondernemende geest en zelfkennis, iets waar we nadien nog zo'n 650 bladzijden mogen van genieten.

Oostwaarts is een ronduit indrukwekkend verslag van Maclean's exploten en een imponerend tijdsdocument over het reilen en zeilen in de Europese politiek tussen 1937 en 1944.
Bij aanvang is Maclean als Brits diplomaat gestationeerd in Moskou, waar hij vooral een blik probeert te werpen op de houding en het leven in de Centraal Aziatische landen (Oezbekistan, Azerbeidzjan, ...) en zo de grenzen van de Bolsjewistische vrijheid en gevoeligheden aftast.
Als de Tweede Wereldoorlog uitbreekt, wordt hij teruggeroepen naar het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken in Londen. Maclean wil echter actief aan de oorlog deelnemen, dwingt zijn ontslag als diplomaat af door zich politiek te laten verkiezen en wordt als officier naar Noord-Afrika gezonden waar hij uiteindelijk met de pas opgerichte Special Air Service (SAS) achter de vijandelijke linies opereert.
In 1943 wordt hij door Churchill zelve uitgezonden naar Joegoslavië, waar hij als contactpersoon met de partizanen onder leiding van Tito actief wordt in de guerrillaoorlog tegen de asmogendheden en de diplomatieke betrekkingen tussen de partizanen en de geallieerden vanuit het veld in goede banen probeert te leiden.

'Oostwaarts' leest als een avonturenroman, geeft een unieke interne blik op de politieke visies en machinaties in Europa rond de Tweede Wereldoorlog (vanuit Brits standpunt alleszins) en beklijft van de eerste tot de laatste letter. Ronduit indrukwekkend, meeslepend, spannend en leerrijk. In alle oprechtheid een boek waarvoor je superlatieven te kort komt.

[Travis Gensler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book of my Grandmother's that I found in a box recently. I was very surprised at how engaged I became within a few pages of first chapter, not to mention the excitement my Grandmother expressed at finding my interest in history after her own heart. Fitzroy MacLean is a wonderful story teller, who's personality shines through every page of this adventurous memoir. I find myself well informed concerning the Russian viewpoint during the Bulshevic revolution, and on through the second world war. I would heartily suggest this book to anyone who has interest in history, mixed with a humor stricken story line.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great travel/adventure story, starting out with his tenure with the British diplomatic service in pre-WW II Stalinist Russia. He surreptitiously travels to Soviet central Asia, then to the border with China. The second part is about his military exploits in WW II in the British Army in Libya & Egypt, with a brief excursion to Persia (now Iran). Then he concludes with the years spent fighting the Nazis in the Balkans with Tito. A jolly good adventure tale!

[Monty Milne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been aware of this book for most of my life but have only just got round to reading it. I wish I’d got round to it before. Every page is fascinating: written with self deprecating humour, great narrative verve, and excellent powers of description. And what a story he has to tell.

Maclean is supremely self confident and everywhere he goes he bumps into people he knows. He is perfectly at ease with Kings, Prime Ministers, partisans, communists and peasants. At times he endures extraordinary hardship and danger, but sometimes finds himself only hours later enjoying the finest food and wine in luxurious surroundings: he relishes such contrasts. And he clearly had an amazing facility with languages, and is able to master many difficult tongues with apparent ease and in a remarkably short space of time. What a remarkable man, and what a splendid advertisement for the country he so ably served.

I had one reservation about him before I read this book, and that was I felt that the Chetniks (the Yugoslav Royalist partisans) were rather hung out to dry because of the Communist sympathisers (or paid KGB agents) within the British secret and diplomatic service. Of course I’m not suggesting Maclean was a Communist agent, but I wondered if they pulled the wool over his eyes. But having read the book, I acquit him of that. Churchill made it clear to him before he was parachuted in to Yugoslavia that he was to find out whether it was the Chetniks or the Communists who were “killing the most Germans”, because that was all that mattered. On that basis, Maclean was surely right to report to Churchill that it was Tito’s Communists who were worthiest of support.

Nevertheless I feel a little discomfort here. The decision was certainly the right one from the short term perspective of bringing the war to the speediest conclusion, but it did ensure Communist control of post war Yugoslavia. It is easy to see that Maclean’s head was turned by Tito, for whom he had enormous liking and respect. And in many ways Tito was admirable as a partisan leader. But backing him inevitably meant all the apparatus of Communist repression, including gulags and firing squads. Lucky for the well born and politically conservative Maclean that he was Scottish and not Serbian.

Maclean was well aware of the post war consequences of what he was doing but still believed it was the right decision. I think he was probably correct, but I’m glad I’ve never had to make decisions fraught with so many difficult consequences. None of this detracts from what is a superb and utterly fascinating account. Maclean remained a Conservative Member of Parliament for many years but, according to Macmillan, he was “hopeless in the House”. I’m rather relieved that there was something he wasn’t considered brilliant at, or it would make him seem altogether too inhumanly unbelievable.

[Maisie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The exploits of a most incredible man. Three totally captivating accounts in one: his wanderings in Russia (spying the land) and at times without the relevant paperwork, his time with the SAS in North Africa during WW2 and his mission on behalf of the British Government in Yugoslavia post the war.

Staggering, breath-taking, awesome.

[Geoff Boxell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book on the recommendation of a fellow Goodreads reviewer who knew of my interest in the many clandestine groups in the Western Desert campaigns of WWII (SAS, Long Range Desert Group, Popski's Private Army, etc). My contact did not know about my interest in, and collection of books dealing with, the Stalinist purges, but this book covers that, the Western Desert and, a topic of which I only had a broad brush knowledge of, the Balkan theatre of operations in WWII. Fitzroy Maclean was involved with all three - other reviewers have covered the details, so I won't repeat them. What I will say is that this book is a very interesting read about a very interesting man and written in an amusing, underplayed and easy style.
The Financial Times said: "An absorbing mixture of military adventure, political judgement, urbane wit, cool humour and surprising incident." I can only say "Hear; hear". Only the fact that I had a lot going on caused me to only read 100 pages a day.

[Gerald Sinstadt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to Eastern Approaches by way of a glowing testimonial in Peter Hopkirk's The Great Game (see my review elsewhere). The front cover calls Maclean's memoir "The best book you will read this year" and for once a clever line in a blurb is hard to challenge. Eastern Approaches will linger in the memory for many a year. It was, after all, first published in 1949 and remains in print.

Fitzroy Maclean - later Sir Fitzroy - tells the story of eight years in his life, from 1937 to 1945. It begins with Maclean as a junior diplomat in Paris, then at the epicentre of European upheaval. He breaks with all precedent by applying for a transfer to the supposedly dead end of the British embassy in Moscow. Once there, he becomes a shrewd observer of a Russia in search of identity; meanwhile, on his frequent (and seemingly often overstayed) leaves he explores - by train, bus, clapped-out car and ferry, on horse and camel, and on foot - the terra incognita of Caucasia.

When war is declared in 1939 Maclean wants to become a soldier but diplomatic rules prevent it. He discovers that diplomacy and politics are not allowed to mix, gets himself proposed as a parliamentary candidate and thus forces the Foreign Office to demand his resignation. He is elected Conservative member for Lancaster but before taking his place at Westminster, enrols as a private soldier. Soon promoted as a subaltern, he finds himself in Cairo where the old pals network steers him into the SAS, leading a raid on Benghazi hundreds of miles behind German lines. There is no false glory: the raid, which reads like the script for a wartime movie, is a failure. Lives are lost, survival is always in the balance.

But Montgomery is winning the war in the desert and Maclean needs new adventures. He is parachuted into occupied Yugoslavia as head of an official British military mission to the Partisans led by Tito - this at a time when the British government is actually backing another group of insurgents. A substantial body of Eastern Approaches is taken up by a gripping account of delicate diplomacy (Tito is a convinced communist with Stalin as a natural ally) and military bravado. From time to time Maclean is temporarily lifted out for consultations at the highest levels, military and political (Churchill asks if, when he parachuted into Yugoslavia, he was wearing the kilt), but he returns each time to see the campaign through to its ultimate victory with the fall of Belgrade.

So in eight years, Maclean experienced enough for three lifetimes, enough for three books. As if that were not enough, he writes with fluency and wit, enlivening his story for page after page by pointed anecdotes and evocative recreation of people and places. In short, this is superb story-telling by one who was there in the heart of it.

[Jerrodm · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first outstanding read of 2018. Prepare your buckles for some serious swashing (or your swashes for some buckling?) with this book. The author, Fitzroy Maclean, was a British diplomat, member of parliament and soldier, and was widely speculated to have been one of the primary models for Ian Fleming's James Bond. Eastern Approaches is the memoir of his early professional life, of first being posted as a member of the British foreign service to Moscow in the late 1930's, and subsequently of leaving the diplomatic service and serving in the Royal Army during World War II.

His Moscow posting gives Maclean the opportunity to indulge his interest in travel and exploration, as he dodges Russian secret police to travel through Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran. He describes the people, places and history of the areas he travels through, interspersed with a steady series of amusing anecdotes about the vicissitudes of travel in interwar Russia. Maclean has a wonderful facility for description of people and places, and he humanizes his stories with characters you would recognize from your everyday life - the harried bureaucrat, the jolly chef, the dumbfounded security guard. It all has the feel of an It Happened One Night screwball comedy.

But wry, amusing travelogues aren't the only high point of the book. Midway through the Moscow portion of Eastern Approaches Maclean shifts into telling the story of the Great Soviet Purge of 1936 to 38, for which he had a ringside seat. The Purge was Stalin's effort to consolidate power by trying and executing several of the most senior Soviet leaders in a proceeding that had the whole world watching and gossiping. Maclean, who attended the trials as a British diplomat, recounts several scenes, including the testimony of key witnesses and the defendants, with a clarity and gift for reportage that kept my interest and fascination even eighty years later. And he fits the trials themselves neatly into a broader contextual understanding of the political climate of the USSR. When I finished reading that eighty-or-so-page section, I felt like I had a much deeper understanding of what it was like to be in Moscow during that time.

And all of that is just the opening act! The second part of Maclean's book takes place in North Africa during the early days of World War II. Upon the outbreak of hostilities, Maclean left the diplomatic service, and joined the army. By hook and by crook he managed to get himself attached to a special forces command stationed in Alexandria, Egypt, and spent the next couple of years conducting desert raids on the Italian Fascists in Libya and Western Egypt. He was then given command of the UK's mission to the Partisans, a communist insurgency fighting against the Italian/German occupation of Yugoslavia (remember, by mid-1941 the Germans were invading the Soviet Union and Stalin was one of the Big Three of the Allied Powers).

The last 40 percent of the book concerns Maclean's adventures with the Partisans, where he served as the UK's official liaison officer to Tito, the head of the Partisans and, after the end of the war, the leader of communist Yugoslavia for almost 40 years. Maclean recounts the hardships of living for months in enemy-held territory, of orchestrating raids and attacks on German troops, supply lines, etc., of directing the delivery of badly needed Allied supplies to the Partisan units.

Even more interesting to me than the military exploits was his recounting of the political maneuvering that took place behind all this military action, between Tito's Partisans and the competing rebel movements, between these movements and the hereditary monarchy in exile in London, and between all these parties and the Allied powers. As PM Churchill's personal representative to the Partisans, Maclean had relatively unfettered access to the highest levels of decision making in the UK government, and recounts several anecdotes of his interactions with the prime minister. It probably didn't hurt that Churchill's son was an officer attached to Maclean's mission.

Maclean's fine eye for person, place and anecdote continues to show in this last section as well. He was clearly smitten with the Balkans, and talks glowingly of the people, the food, and the geography. He expertly balances the themes of travelogue, personal memoir, political analysis and adventure tale.

OK, pretty glowing review so far. Here are the things I didn't like:

1. As fine as Maclean's writing is, he makes little effort to dig below the level of caricature when describing other people. It's actually fascinating that the people whose characters get by far the deepest treatment are a few senior Soviet officials under trial in the Great Purge, and General Tito. Maclean obviously sees his life, and history more broadly, as the story of Great Men (and yes, virtually all the people in Maclean's book are men). Apart from these few, Maclean makes little effort to write his associates as anything but side characters in The Adventures of Fitzroy Maclean. Granted, given that he's already spreading his narrative over so many kinds of writing, maybe it's too much to ask that he spend time writing deep portraits of those who shared the experiences he writes about. But it still feels a little hollow.

2. War sounds pretty damn fun in this book, which is always something I have mixed feelings about. Maclean doesn't shy away from talking about death as it occurs during his adventures, but it always feels a little removed from the actual experience of it. One very telling (to me, anyway) sign is this: Maclean never notes at any point that he has taken direct action in combat. He never alludes to himself aiming a weapon and pulling a trigger. 90 percent of the images of danger are amusing, not terrifying, as when the Bosnian guards who see Maclean's approaching boat repeatedly misinterpret their signals and spray them with machine-gun fire, without effect. His dry, reserved British humor at events like this is fun, but it's also deceiving. If someone shot my boat up with a machine gun I'd almost certainly crap my pants.

3. Maclean's life is a garden party at the Ambassador's residence to which white, aristocratic men are almost exclusively invited. Women, when they appear at all, are noted for either the novelty of women doing, you know, actual things other than cooking and making children - that jeep driver was a WAC sergeant! the Partisan sentry holding a rifle slung over her pretty shoulder was a woman! - or they make it into the narrative due to their beguiling looks, charming banter or curvy build. I mean, this guy was the prototype for James Bond, so you pretty much know what you're getting ahead of time, but still... Additionally, the racism implicit in the book is pretty tough, though I think well within the center of white Western views at the time it was written - it's not so much that he writes bad things about non-Caucasian people, but that he references them the same way that one might expect to see a bird or a piece of livestock described. If the Europeans who people Maclean's stories are caricatures, the non-Europeans are stick-figures. Not to say that it's totally unproblematic in this respect either, but I think T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom presents a clear contrast, in the way he is careful to illustrate the deep common humanity of the Arabs (though not the Turks!) who form a part of his adventure tales. The same cannot be said of Eastern Approaches.

OK in spite of those problems, I still had a great time reading this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves tales of adventure and political history.