{"title":"Xan Fielding","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into Xan Fielding's thrilling world of espionage and wartime adventure. A master of suspense, Fielding’s accounts offer a rare glimpse into the covert operations of WWII. Perfect for history buffs!\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"hide-seek-book-xan-fielding-9781589880849","title":"Hide \u0026 Seek","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"One of the great books of the Second World War\"--Antony Beevor\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHide and Seek\u003c\/i\u003e, first published in 1954 and unavailable for many years, is surely among the best wartime memoirs. It is narrated in a vivid close-up style...by a man who spent two years in caves and other hideouts in the White Mountains, venturing to the coast only to guide a supply submarine with flashing torch, or to smuggle endangered or exhausted colleagues to safety in Cairo...It is remarkable that he lived to tell the tale; that he does so with such modesty, grace and humour is extraordinary.\"--James Campbell, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"Xan Fielding was a gifted, many-sided, courageous and romantic figure, at the same time civilized and Bohemian, and his thoughtful cast of mind was leavened by humour, spontaneous gaiety, and a dash of recklessness. Almost any stretch of his life might be described as a picaresque interlude.\"--Patrick Leigh Fermor\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn January 1942, Xan Fielding landed on German-occupied Crete with orders to disrupt the resupply of Rommel's Afrika Korps and establish an intelligence network in cooperation with the Cretan resistance movement. Working with bands of Cretan partisans, he succeeded magnificently. In this memoir of his wartime exploits, Fielding presents a portrait of the quintessential English operative--amateur, gifted, daring, and charming.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrom the new foreword by Robert Messenger:\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eHide and Seek\u003c\/i\u003e is a classic of British war literature, an understated account of a man's coming-of-age thanks to the sudden shouldering of great responsibility. Fielding is deprecating about the dangers and his own achievements. It is typical of the quiet and reticent man who preferred to live outside the limelight and wrote matter-of-factly about the war rather than with a gloss of adventure or heroism. There's a scene, late in 1943, when Fielding and a group of partisans study the German's list of 'wanted' men. He notes 'with regrettable but only human pride that the entry under my local pseudonym, which outlined in detail my physical characteristics, aliases and activities for a period of eighteen months, took no less than three-quarters of an octavo page in closely-set small-point type.' The Germans had surely measured his worth.\"\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eXan Fielding\u003c\/b\u003e (1918-1991) was a British writer and traveler, and a lifelong friend of Patrick Leigh Fermor, who served with him in Crete during World War II. (The introduction to Fermor's \u003ci\u003eA Time of Gifts\u003c\/i\u003e is written as a \"Letter to Xan Fielding.\") Fielding also translated many novels from French, most notably, \u003ci\u003eThe Bridge on the River Kwai\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Planet of the Apes\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRobert Messenger\u003c\/b\u003e is the books editor of the \u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49541173641489,"sku":"GOR007523814","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50096149266705,"sku":"CIN1589880846G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50154015424785,"sku":"GOR010458674","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51037789159697,"sku":"NIN9781589880849","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51604671070481,"sku":"GOR010763884","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52153229082897,"sku":"CIN1589880846VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1589880846.jpg?v=1751023641"},{"product_id":"one-man-in-his-time-book-xan-fielding-9780333480472","title":"One Man in His Time","description":"Lieutenant Colonel Neil (\"Billy\") McLean, DSO, had a conventional upbringing in England and the Highlands, but it was never his nature to conform. Commissioned into a crack regiment shortly before the War, he found regular soldiering too dull and volunteered for paramilitary work. He commanded a general unit in Abyssinia and organized partisan resistance in Albania. After the War he became an MP and managed to combine parliamentary activity with adventurous fact-finding tours all over the world, particularly in the Middle East, where he made friends with several monarchs and heads of state. These contacts enabled him to play a leading part in saving North Yemen from the surge of Marxism that engulfed many other countries in the region. This was his crowning act, and for the rest of his life he continued to serve as an informal roving ambassador furthering British interests wherever he could. \"Billy\" McLean kept prolific records of his meetings and conversations with a great many important political and military figures, and Xan Fielding makes full use of these records in this biography.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49544204648721,"sku":"GOR002872486","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53606363201809,"sku":"GOR004086900","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0333480473.jpg?v=1751390701"},{"product_id":"images-of-spain-book-xan-fielding-9780753712337","title":"Images of Spain","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49604365648145,"sku":"GOR001844829","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49633777975569,"sku":"GOR003917780","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49998841118993,"sku":"CIN0753712334G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50614121824529,"sku":"GOR010919784","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51158216016145,"sku":"GOR014190094","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0753712334.jpg?v=1751138662"},{"product_id":"money-spinner-book-xan-fielding-9780297772019","title":"Money Spinner","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49635757162769,"sku":"GOR007177260","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0297772015.jpg?v=1751165182"},{"product_id":"the-bridge-on-the-river-kwai-book-pierre-boulle-9780006152200","title":"The Bridge on The River Kwai","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49655095361809,"sku":"GOR004388610","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0006152201.jpg?v=1751289206"},{"product_id":"corsair-country-the-diary-of-a-journey-along-the-barbary-coast-rare-book-xan-fielding-1646402813ada","title":"Corsair Country: The Diary Of A Journey Along The Barbary Coast","description":"1958. 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Boards are a little rub worn, slight shelf w","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50080603308305,"sku":"1687937395ADA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1687937395ADA_1.jpg?v=1722905477"},{"product_id":"stronghold-book-xan-fielding-9781589880856","title":"Stronghold","description":"\u003cp\u003eA splendid new edition.James Campbell, Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXan Fielding was a gifted, many-sided, courageous and romantic figure, at the same time civilized and Bohemian, and his thoughtful cast of mind was leavened by humour, spontaneous gaiety, and a dash of recklessness. Almost any stretch of his life might be described as a picaresque interlude.Patrick Leigh Fermor\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring the Second World War, Xan Fielding served for two years as an officer in the British Special Operations Executive on German-occupied Crete, where he ran an intelligence network in cooperation with the Cretan resistance movement.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeven years later, Fielding returned to Crete to spend a year traveling in the island's White Mountains (the stronghold of the title), revisiting sites of his wartime exploits and seeking out former comrades who had returned to their peacetime lives. His sojourn resulted in this remarkable memoir, a documentary-like record of days spent among Cretan peasants blended with history and literaturea travelogue like no other.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Stronghold is a blending of history and culture with experience, but one wedded to fidelity. Fielding never arrives; there is no great journey of self. There is just a question answered about the war and youthhe can't shake Crete, as no man can shake the formative experience of his youth.from the new foreword by Robert Messenger\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book of mine does not claim to be a serious sociological work; it is simply the account of a more or less carefree year spent among people who seem to fit so perfectly into their startling surroundings that at times I imagined it was not the landscape that conditioned their lives but their personalities that had conditioned the landscape.Xan Fielding\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXan Fielding (19181991) was a British writer and traveler, and a lifelong friend of Patrick Leigh Fermor, who served with him in Crete during World War I. (The introduction to Fermor's A Time of Gifts is written as a Letter to Xan Fielding.) Fielding also translated many novels from French, most notably, The Bridge on the River Kwai and The Planet of the Apes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRobert Messenger is the books editor of the Wall Street Journal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50096263987473,"sku":"CIN1589880854G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50189229490449,"sku":"GOR005357406","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51038148854033,"sku":"NIN9781589880856","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51604671037713,"sku":"GOR005907575","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1589880854.jpg?v=1751245359"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-xan-fielding.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}