Fitztroy Maclean was one of the real-life inspirations for super-spy James Bond, & reading Eastern Approaches it`s easy to see why. 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 & outrageous kidnapping of the German Consul in Axis-controlled Iraq. Maclean`s extraordinary adventures in the Western Desert & later fighting alongside Tito`s partisans in Yugoslavia make for thrilling reading & show what it took to be a British hero who broke the mould.