Great story about a time one can only imagine now. The fortitude of people like MacLean is amazing. Was kind of hoping for more of his central asia exploits but the remainder was actually a nice surprise and well written. Very quick and easy reading.

I bought this book in the 60's in the Time/Life edtion, but didn't get around to reading it until 1995, when I was in Jalalabad, Afghanistan for a few weeks. Of course, that was the perfect setting, but from any viewpoint in the world "Eastern Approaches" is quite close to the perfect travel book. I left my copy in the library of the American Club in Peshawar, trying to save luggage room for Afghan textiles, and I was very sorry to learn when I got home that it was out of print. Now it's back, and I look forward to reading it again while sitting in my armchair. "Eastern Approaches" is a great read, and never more relevant than today.

This is an exciting autobiography, which I have read and reread over the years. Of particular interest is the author's introduction into the SAS.

This book will become a permanent fixture in your library.

Pre WWII, Maclean finagled trips through parts of the USSR where no westerner had previously been, even crossing into Afghanistan from the north at one point. He spent much of WWI aiding Marshal Tito's effort to drive the Germans out of the Balkans. Fascinating stuff, this, eloquently written and he's a damn good storyteller.

This book is of great historical value. The narration is witty and elegant. I would recomant it to everybody interested in European history.

This is a truly unique book and comparable only with Churchill's 'My Early Life' as an adventure history. Some people write adventure books, some people have adventures but Fitzroy McLean, like Churchill, or TE Lawrence, is able to do both. A rare treat and very easy to read.

This is a truly unique book and comparable only with Churchill's 'My Early Life' as an adventure history. Some people write adventure books, some people have adventures but Fitzroy McLean, like Churchill, or TE Lawrence, is able to do both. A rare treat and very easy to read.

Great entertaining read, although it is said to have inspired Ian Fleming to write James Bond, this story is worth a place on the silver screen.

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, and "Eastern Approaches" opens with Maclean on a train, pulling out of Paris. Most of this first section of the book covers his repeated attempts to explore Soviet central Asia. He reached Bokhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and many other places, and though there are sadly few pictures 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. His exploits are said to have formed the basis for the character of James Bond, though Maclean would never confirm or deny this. The sequence when he personally kidnaps a Persian general who is collaborating with the Germans is certainly straight out of a Bond film. The book is spectacularly entertaining: if you have any taste for history, adventure, travel writing or war-time memoirs, this is as good as it gets.

Eastern Approaches documents the extraordinary travels and life of Fitzroy MacLean. Maclean was a British diplomat who while in Russia became one of the first westerners to explore Central Asia during the Soviet rule. He worked with the British special forces in the North African desert and worked on behalf of the allies with the partisans in Yugoslavia during the Second world war.

Well written, this book is a worthwhile read for anybody seeking a bit of adventure in their life. These miraculous tales (true none the least) will keep you entertained throughout.

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, and "Eastern Approaches" opens with Maclean on a train, pulling out of Paris. Most of this first section of the book covers his repeated attempts to explore Soviet central Asia. He reached Bokhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and many other places, and though there are sadly few pictures 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. His exploits are said to have formed the basis for the character of James Bond, though Maclean would never confirm or deny this. The sequence when he personally kidnaps a Persian general who is collaborating with the Germans is certainly straight out of a Bond film. The book is spectacularly entertaining: if you have any taste for history, adventure, travel writing or war-time memoirs, this is as good as it gets.

Nu omicron tau omicron sigma....

Notice... north wind..

True, MacLean came from Britain to parachute into Yugoslavia.

The mission of this man was to meet the resistance leader,
Tito, head of the anti-Axis forces in the Balkans, Yosef Broz Tito... Tito... Tito.. read the book, and you'll understand
how this man, Tito, was addressed by crowds before speaking.

later this man, Tito, succumbed to the loss of a limb, if i
remember, correctly, this was after the war, and related to

prion Kreb's deficiency, a medical malady incurred of Tito of
his own temple, his own body, by living.

It was white camouflaged Yugoslavians who were laying outside
Auschwitz the day it was liberated. This I read in a little
yellow paperback about Auschwitz at the Norwood, Ohio
Media Play store.

My name is Douglas... you may call me mr. nemo.

Call me Ishmael.

This is the voyage of a vintage WW I Torpedo Patrol Channel
boat, parked under wharfs oeuvre between sorties in the English
channel.

spotter on board

mgm.comp.mgm

reg. penna dept. agric.

Please read my review, "Was this the real 007?" posted September 25th 2001. I must apologise for one glaring inaccuracy. I mention that Mr Maclean, along with Eric Newby and Wilfred Thesiger, are the last of a particular breed of Englishmen. Mr Maclean, of course, is a Scot. Thanks to those who pointed out my mistake. Hopefully you will still enjoy this excellent book.

I read the original issue of this book about 15 years ago. I loved it. I lent it to friends and relatives. They all loved it too. Somebody liked it so much that it was not returned. I found three copies in a used book store. I bought all three and the circle of lending continued. Eventually they all disappeared. The book was out of print and I and another devoted fan were most upset. Now the book has been reprinted and I promptly bougth two. One will be kept in a safe place.

This book is one of my three or four favorite books of all time. I am rereading it to keep up with current events; Macleans's adventures in Kazakhstan and Afghanistan in the 1930s give a view of this part of the world that is still relevant; he captures all the sights, sounds, and smells.

The book is really three books:

Part 1 contains Maclean's travels through the Soviet Union as a diplomat, spy, and adventurer in the late 1930s, including his description of the show trial of Bukharin, and his comical adventures going to see Samarkand, Tashkent, and Bokhara -- more out of romantic curiosity than for conducting any official business. A wonderful book about Russia under Stalin.

Part 2 -- Maclean joins the war, even though the foreign office has forbidden him to leave his post; he does so by running for Parliament (hence loving his civil servant status), and after winning election, he promptly "runs away" to join his regiment. He ends up in the Long Range Desert Group, doing all kinds of commando work agains the Germans in North Africa.

Part 3 -- Maclean becomes the liason to Tito, whom the British are not sure even exists, by parachuting into Yugoslavia. Maclean and his team supply Tito's partisans and coordinate raids that tie down German divisions. Maclean cannot keep Tito from being other than what he is -- a communist, and so the book ends a little poignantly.

This is one of the finest -- perhaps the finest -- first hand account of history, ranking right up there with Chruchill's 5 volumes on the second world war. This book is told on a much lower level, but the canvas Maclean covers is nearly as broad.

How this was never made into a movie with Sean Connery is beyond me. Some people maintain that Maclean was the prototype of James Bond, but there is a much more human, almost Don Quixote quality to him that makes him and his book unforgettable.

In Paris he served as a member of the foreign service, from there he transferred to Moscow and while in Moscow ventured by train and by foot into regions of that country off limits to foreigners and he did so pursued by the N.K.V.D.(pre K.G.B. secret police). Later he was parachuted into Yugoslavia to meet up with Tito's forces and there greatly contributed to the resistance against the Nazis. The most exciting part of this though(though its all unbelievably exciting)is reading about his part in the North African campaigns. Maclean was a brilliant practitioner in the T.E. Lawrence brand of fighting, in fact there is a photo of him in full desert headress driving a machine gun clad rover over the dunes on one of his many hit and run strikes. He reported directly to Churchill and the two would meet in Cairo. A gentleman fighter if there ever was one. Would love to read the transcripts of those conversations. This is the Lawrence of Arabia of WWII. Fascinating portraits of Russia and its eastern provinces in the thirties, of Englands temporary and uneasy alliance with Titos communist forces in Yugoslavia, and those impossibly romantic desert scenes of gentleman Fitzroy leading caravans of jeeps and rovers behind heavily defended enemy lines to supposedly unreachable destinations and against all odds winning victory after victory. Hip Hip Hooray.

History may judge him harshly, but this book is an incredible adventure story and worth reading for its coverage of Stalin's purges alone. Fitzroy Maclean was apparently Ian Fleming's model for his most famous creation, James Bond. Whether stooging quietly around the back of beyond in Stalin's Soviet Union, sneaking across the Sahara to launch raids far behind German lines in World War Two or hiking through the vertical mountains of Yugoslavia Maclean is both modest and reticent. But the adventures he has are so outrageous that anything but a self-deprecating approach would seem both boastful and wildly improbable. With Eric Newby and Wilfred Thesiger, this man was the last of a particular breed of Englishmen. The world will be a poorer place for their passing.

Dry English wit and a knack for savoring the small delights as well as the large make this a GREAT book, rather than merely very interesting. My original came from TIME LIFE and my daughter, now grown, refuses to give it back! It is one of the seminal books in her education experience.