This is like the best type of old man beach read, or maybe the kind of book you give your stepdad for Christmas.

Very entertaining, mainly because of the circumstances Maclean found himself in; Central Asia and the Soviet Union at a time when it was mostly closed to outsiders, the the doubly treacherous North African desert during wartime, installed with the radical Partisans in Yugoslavia as the fought against German occupation.

As for the man himself, I guess we come from different generations is all. I was mostly impressed by his tremendous bravery (in the most neutral sense of the word) and his broad intellect when dealing with far-flung cultures and peoples. When he mentioned near the beginning of the book that he was able to chat up the Russian border guards with the Russian he had learned in Paris nightclubs, I knew I was dealing with a special kind of person. His political opinions, which are liberally sprinkled thru this account, I don’t exactly share, but he was able to judge people for their worth as human beings and not get weighed down in ideology.

I was also struck by the tremendous impassibility with which he recounted the tremendously violent events that take place in the last third of the book. I guess that’s how we know we are dealing we a career soldier here. That mixed with a healthy dose of British stiff chin allows Maclean to dryly describe gawking civilians being blithely shelled into oblivion in Belgrade during the battle to liberate the city without much, if any emotion. This isn’t necessarily a criticism. After all, this was the war for the claim to the future of civilization, but I think the 21st century reader is much more conditioned by a climate of extreme fear of and distrust of resorting to combat. ( )

A detailed and enjoyable account of the wartime exploits of one of Churchill's favourite "gentleman buccaneers", I was nonetheless initially disappointed in this book, mainly because (in the 2019 Penguin UK edition), Simon Sebag Montefiore's introduction bigs up the book as a life-changing great work of literature. But Patrick Leigh Fermor it isn't. Rather, Maclean provides an eloquent, at times amusing and at other times stark account of his travels in Soviet Central Asia in the 1930s, and then his activities in the Western Desert and Yugoslavia during the Second World War.

As a young man, Maclean was posted to the British Embassy in Paris; but finding the round of diplomatic engagements and parties unfulfilling, he got himself posted to Moscow - then an unpopular posting - because he felt that to be the place where he could indulge his passion for finding things out. This he proceeded to do, going beyond the call of duty by setting out in his free time to explore Soviet Central Asia, inspired by the romance of places like Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent. In this, he was at first hindered, and later greatly assisted, by having two secret policemen on his tail. Having once extracted himself from a potentially unpleasant situation with a troop of NKVD cavalry by passing off a ticket for the Red Square May Day Parade as an "access all zones" diplomatic pass signed by someone very senior (made possible by his being the only person in the room who could actually read Russian), he became emboldened and started using the NKVD local offices and his minders as personal tour organisers, arranging rooms in official hostels here, a train compartment into a closed zone there (when such a thing was officially Not Possible), or transport with a lorry or even a car into sensitive areas somewhere else. This section of the book combines humour with some interesting travel writing in an area which is still little known to us even 25 years since the fall of Communism.

On his return to Moscow, Maclean attended the show trial of Bukharin and other Bolshevik leaders. His pen portrait of Bukharin in particular and his perceptive observations on the process, and of Stalin's underlying paranoia, makes for interesting reading.

At the outbreak of war, Maclean determined to join the Army, as was the family tradition. This required some considerable manoeuvring, as diplomats were not supposed to join up. Instead, he resigned from the Diplomatic Service in order to stand for Parliament; once he had won the by-election (in Lancaster) for the Conservatives, and despite making no bones about joining up if elected, he joined the Army as a private. This did not last long; he earned his first stripe, and then was quickly headhunted, probably on the strength of his reports on Soviet Central Asia, into David Stirling's new Special Air Service (SAS) and given a commission.

Maclean's account of his actions with the SAS is interesting, especially as so much has been written about them by others and much has passed into popular mythology. Maclean's account gives a rather downbeat account of SAS operations and their degree of success; but he also explores some of the thinking behind their operations, the extent of Axis intelligence operations directed against them, and some analysis of the SAS' role in the wider conflict, which in the eyes of the higher levels of command was to tie up Axis military assets in guarding their own installations behind the lines.

Diverted to the Middle East to replicate the SAS establishment in Iran and Iraq, in the anticipation of German efforts to penetrate these areas for their oil from the north, Maclean recounted some adventures there, including kidnapping a pro-German Persian general from his own fortified home under the noses of his own men.

Maclean was then tasked directly by Churchill with going into the then Yugoslavia and establishing contact with the Partisans. At the time, British support was concentrated on the Chetniks, remnants of the Royal Yugoslav Army which were supposedly continuing resistance to the Italians and Germans, but which seemed to be at best 'hands-off' and at worst actually collaborating with the invaders. Churchill wanted to find out about the partisans and their leader, the mysterious 'Tito', about whom we knew nothing. Some even speculated that Tito was not a single individual, but a committee.

Maclean was not just tasked with making contact with Tito; he was allocated resources to establish a liaison office with the Partisans. Accordingly, he set about recruiting soldiers to go into Yugoslavia with him and training them up to make parachute jumps and fight in difficult terrain. This involved some detachments to the School of Mountain Warfare, established in the Bekaa Valley in the Lebanon. (This was of interest to me as my father also went to the School of Mountain Warfare, and this is the first time I have seen it referenced in print. It is likely that my father was there at the same time as Maclean; but as Maclean was bridling at continued training and in any case was constantly being called back to Cairo for meetings and consultations, I doubt their paths crossed at all.)

Perhaps the major part of the book is devoted to Maclean and the war in Yugoslavia. He gives a short version of Yugoslav history which is probably the best and clearest account of that knotty subject. His account of his comings and goings with the Partisans has a lot of detail; he illustrates Napoleon's dictum that "an army marches on its stomach", especially in the account of the repasts conjured up out of nowhere by the Partisans and the villagers they meet with. Perhaps the other significant part of this book is Maclean's portrait of Tito. They appear to have become great friends; Maclean respects Tito and expresses hopes that he would not turn into an identikit puppet Soviet leader, such as those he had seen in the Soviet Union. In his description of Tito, he sees indications that this may not be so; having fought so hard for their freedom, Tito says, would Maclean expect the Yugoslavs to give it up so readily to anyone else, Communist doctrine notwithstanding?

The book ends with the liberation of Belgrade and Maclean being pulled out of the country, close to the war's end.

So: not the literary masterpiece I had been led to expect, but certainly a significant book because of Maclean's insights and love of travel. There are some other concerns; there is small-'r' racism throughout, as Maclean uses the language of racial stereotyping extensively. There is one tangential use of the 'n' word. But Maclean does not appear to be at all prejudiced in his personal dealings with people of all races and cultures, so I feel we should mark this down to the fashions of the time.

And there is one factual query; late in the account of his time in Yugoslavia, Maclean makes reference to a "Fiat mortar"; something I have never heard of. His description is somewhat ambiguous, which makes me wonder if the intention was to refer to a British weapon called a PIAT - in Army parlance, a 'Projectile, Infantry, Anti-Tank" - a single-use shoulder-mounted weapon which propelled a mortar-like round by means of a powerful spring. If that is so, then this is a typo which has been in place since the first edition of this book in 1949, and which no-one has ever challenged, possibly through a lack of military experience within the publishing industry! Sadly, we can't check this any longer, Maclean having died in 1996.

So: not a literary masterpiece, although well-written and with a fine ear for language and an eye for detail. But certainly a book of great value for understanding a lot of eastern European history of the 20th Century, written by someone who was there. ( )

1. Eastern Approaches (1949). First released in England, the American edition was released under the title "Escape to Adventure" to make it more appealing to American audiences. I tend to agree. Eastern Approaches does not do justice to the excitement of this book. It details his posting to the Soviet Union in the 1930s and exploits with the SAS during WWII. Bought used but can't remember where. Inscription reads, Speedy recovery and best wishes, your friend Bill Hinchman To Capt. John P[???]y.

( )

This had been on the shelf since the sixties - my "Bildungsbürgertum" dad subscribed to the Time Reading Program - but I finally opened it during the Balkan War to gain some historical perspective. This book supplied that, and more. A great read, highly recommended. ( )

Memoir of travel in Russia in the late 1930s, while serving as a diplomat, followed by wartime adventures in Persia, North Africa and Yugoslavia, where he worked closely with Tito. ( )