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 readin...

'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.' Daarom neemt Fitzroy Maclean in 1937 afscheid van zijn luxueuze diplomatenleventje in Parijs om op de trein naar Moskou te stappen. Dat is het begin van een verhaal dat menig avonturenroman overtreft en hem van het afgeschermde Centraal-Azië tot de tribunes van de Moskouse zuiveringsprocessen van Stali...

The Scots, said a censorious English member of Parliament in 1607, have not suffered above two kings to die in their beds these two hundred years. He may have exaggerated, but undeniably Scotland has had a rough and bloodstained history. It is a complex one, too, but the late Fitzroy Maclean and Magnus Linklater disentangle the threads, and enliven their brisk account with both wit and scholarship. Pictures from authentic contemporary sources illuminate the story its romantic figures and b...

Il y a du Kessel dans cet homme doué à la fois pour l'action et pour l'écriture [...] Ce fils d'Albion ne se départ jamais de son flegme, racontant les choses les plus incroyables, les plus drôles sur un ton égal. Le Figaro littéraire Tour à tour diplomate, militaire au sein du Special Air Service et espion, l'Écossais Fitzroy Maclean (1911-1996), doté d'une audace invraisemblable, s'amuse et excelle à semer les agents du NKVD dans son périple à travers l'Asie centrale soviétique – où...

First published in 1958, A Person From England tells of how the legendary cities of Turkestan - Merv, Khiva, Bokhara and Samarkand - have long exerted a romantic fascination upon Western travellers. During the last century, men of many nationalities have played what they and their contemporaries have called "The Great Game" - travelling throughout Central Asia. The author revives memories of the agents and travellers - official and unofficial, military and civilian - who have visi...