MACLEAN, Fitzroy. Eastern Approaches. London, Jonathan Cape, [1949].
8vo. Original cloth in dust jacket, not price-clipped and with Book Society's Choice printed inside front flap; pp. 543; photogravure plates, 3 folding maps; light offsetting from endpapers, minor rubbing to upper edge of wrappers, ownership inscription to front fly-leaf; otherwise very good.
First edition, and not the Book Society issue, despite the wrappers. Fitzroy MacLean's adventures as a secret agent before and during WWII, in Central Asia, Libya, and Yugoslavia, where he was charged with gaining information about Tito and operated behind enemy lines. The action in the Balkans war takes up almost 230 pages. It has been suggested that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for the James Bond character.
#2119415