Sir Fitzroy Hew Royle Maclean of Dunconnel, 1st Baronet KT CBE (1911-1996) was a Scottish soldier, writer and politician. He was a Unionist MP from 1959 to 1974 and was one of few people who entered World War II as a private and left having risen to the rank of Brigadier.Maclean wrote several books, including Eastern Approaches, in which he recounted three extraordinary series of adventures: travelling, often incognito, in Soviet Central Asia; fighting in the Western Desert Campaign, where he specialized in commando raids behind enemy lines; and living rough with Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans. It has been speculated that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for James Bond.

• AcknowledgementsPrologue1 A Person from England2 A Dervish from Turkey3 Special Correspondent4 White General5 Khan of Merv6 Superior Person7 All is Known to Finkelstein8 A Rendezvous with DeathEpilogueBibliographyA Note on the Author