About this title: 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 ...
read more
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. p. cm. Cataloging based on CIP information. Reprint of the 1962 ed. published by Time Inc. in series: Time reading program. Includes index. read more
Description: Intro. by Charles Thayer, 1950, Times Reading ed. c.1980, 8vo. paperbk. 562pp. memoirs of 30s. Russia, WW2 North Africa & Balkans guerilla. G+ read more
Description: Intro. by Charles Thayer, 1950, Times Reading ed. c.1980, 8vo. paperbk. 562pp. memoirs of 30s. Russia, WW2 North Africa & Balkans guerilla. G $ read more
Description: Time Reading Program, Special edition, Time-Life Books, Alexandra, VA, 1980; Very Good; no d/j; With an Introduction by Charles W. Thayer. read more
Description: Very Good. B000KWK10M Softcover book is in excellent condition, no spine creases, looks nearly new, 1980 Time Reading Program printing. Shop & Save With US. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Global
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780140132717ISBN:0140132716
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First Thus
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Pan, London
Date Published: 1956
Description: Very Good- Mass market paperback, 413 pages, black-and-white illustrations. See also our listing for Maclean's Josip Broz Tito: A Pictorial Biography. read more
Edition: Special Edition Time Reading program
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Time/Life Books, Alexandria, Va.
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780809435654ISBN:0809435659
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. tight copy, clean on inside, slight shelf wear to cover, especially corners. Soft-bound, glued binding, 562 pgs., illustrated, index. Audience: General/trade read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Time Life
Date Published: 1950
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 1950 Trade PB. Time Life Reading Program. 561 pgs. Same cover as new edition. No marks, clean pgs, binidng solid. Cover with general shelf wear, spine with light creases from opening. Light tanning. Table of Contents, Index. B/W photos. The classic true adventure story of a man who, by the pen, sword, and diplomatic pouch, influenced some of the most significant events of our era. Fitzroy Maclean recounts his extraordinary adventures in Soviet Central Asia; in ... read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Reprint Society
Date Published: 1951
Description: Good. Page colour-Slightly discoloured in accordance with book age. Publication date may vary. The dust cover of this book is missing. However, book in a very good condition, The book has a few stained pages. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780141042848ISBN:0141042842
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Description: Acceptable. A vivid account of the author's pre war and wartime adventures. B/w illustrated with some wear to cover edges and darkening to page edges. Good binding for age and use. 412 pages plus ads. First Paperback. read more
"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."
"I aspire to be this awesome. The book is so droll and modest in its execution, while openly sharing with you the enthusiasm for adventure, that you wonder if Fitz was aware at the time he was evading NKVD agents in forbidden Central Asia or traipsing across the desert as an SAS agent or parachuting over darkest Yugoslavia that he was the baddest dude ever."
"Eastern Approaches (1949) by Sir Fitzroy MacLean provides a fascinating insider look at some of the more significant historical periods of the mid-20th century. The author, rumored to be the model for Ian Fleming's James Bond Agent 007, but not at all a braggart himself, writes with great fluency and descriptive power about his time as a staff officer in Moscow during the brutal Stalinist purges of the 1930s, as a special operations officer in WWII in Northern Africa, and as an advisor to the young unknown partisan leader, Tito, in Yugoslavia. When he worked in Moscow, he also used all his vacation time to travel alone into the farthest reaches of the Soviet Empire to places now in the headlines such as Afghanistan. His vivid description of these areas, rarely visited by Europeans, supplements this interesting memoir with great travel writing."
"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."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
