Fitzroy MacLean

The life of Sir Fitzroy Maclean is a heady blend of adventure and achievement. Diplomat, soldier, statesman, traveller, writer and film-maker, he is a modern hero to rival the Burtons and Burnabys of the Victorian era. Now in this biography, written with Sir Fitzroy’s co-operation and drawing on all possible sources besides, we have a comprehensive record of his extraordinary life. Born into the tradition of the Highland clans, Fitzroy soon evolved beyond the establishment compass of Eton, Cambridge and the Diplomatic Service. Determined to be a warrior like the Macleans of old, he resigned in 1941 from the Foreign Service, became an MP and joined the Cameron Highlanders as a private soldier. His abilities were soon recognized after daring service with the newly formed SAS regiment behind German lines in North Africa. A brigadier at 32, he was chosen by Churchill to be head of the mission to Tito’s partisans. The 18 months he spent with Tito and the postwar aftermath form the centrepiece of this book, but McLynn does not neglect his later career as backbench Conservative MP, junior minister, world traveller and author (his “Eastern Approaches” was an immediate and enduring best-seller when it appeared in 1949). Fitzroy Maclean’s great reputation has come under scrutiny during the break-up of both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia – the two countries he, more than any other man, interpreted to the West – and McLynn investigates the controversies that have attached to his name. In a crowded life Fitzroy rubbed shoulders with an amazing variety of people: from Churchill to Orson Welles, from Tito to Yevtushenko; his kaleidoscopic career was the perfect extension of a multifaceted personality with claims to be the only “Renaissance Man” in a galaxy of war heroes.