http://localhost:8080/fitzroy-maclean Senior Fellow, Hillsdale College Churchill Project, Writer and Historian Fri, 26 Jan 2024 03:48:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 http://localhost:8080/fitzroy-maclean#comment-66507 Sun, 02 Jul 2023 22:06:51 +0000 https://richardlangworth.com/?p=15711#comment-66507 Thank you for the MacLean piece. As a Scottish-American, I first came to Sir Fitzroy’s writings via his Scottish history contacts with Churchill. One of my earliest published reviews for Military History was of his Highlanders: A History of the Scottish Clans….
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“No single group of inhabitants of the British Isles inflicted more serious setbacks on the English conquest of their lands than the Scottish Highlanders. English defeats like Stirling Bridge, Bannockburn and Prestonpans must permanently coexist with victories like Falkirk, Flodden and Culloden in British history books. But if the Scots made formidable foes, the English found them to be good men to have on their side in the centuries following the final fall of the old Scottish Highland clans at Culloden on April 16, 1746. Waterloo, the Alma, Ypres, El Alamein and Port Stanley are only a few of the battles in which Highlanders made a vital contribution toward victory.”
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MacLean’s glossary of clan tartans and brief histories is both compelling and enlightening. The cover price of his last great work should not deter prospective purchasers, because the book is worth every penny. Highlanders is a wondrous resource for the military historian in general, and certainly a must for anyone whose “blood is strong” and whose “heart is Highland.”
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Thanks, WJS. A link to your review is provided above. —RML

]]> http://localhost:8080/fitzroy-maclean#comment-66504 Sun, 02 Jul 2023 17:23:13 +0000 https://richardlangworth.com/?p=15711#comment-66504 Great article. A favourite book of mine is his Eastern Approaches, an amazing account of his adventures prior and during the Second World War.
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Thanks, Terry. Most of the quotes in my piece are from Eastern Approaches. After joining the Foreign Office Fitzroy asked to be sent to Moscow (they were astonished—no one ever did), because he wanted to get to the fabled cities like Bokhara and Samarkand. And of course he did, though Soviet Central Asia was officially off limits to foreigners. When the war came he got round the ban on F.O. personnel joining the army by resigning and running for Parliament—MPs could enlist. In 1942 Churchill introduced him to Smuts: “Here is the young man who has made a Public Convenience of the Mother of Parliaments.” —RML

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