Eastern Approaches

Why it’s on the list: Maclean’s memoir in three parts — a young diplomat in Stalin’s Moscow during the show trials, the SAS in the Western Desert, then parachuted in to Tito’s partisans as Churchill’s envoy.

Where I heard about it

• A reply to @typesfast — named as “Eastern Approaches by Fitzroy Maclean” in answer to his question “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” in a thread on X, June 2025. The full set of replies lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet).

Connections

• Russia — The first section: Moscow during the purges.
• World War II — The second and third.
• Biography — The form.
• What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.