Where Eagles Dare

Where Eagles Dare – Alistair MacLean (Fontana, 1971)

A battered old Fontana paperback of MacLean’s snowbound war classic – the one with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood in the film, though this one stubbornly refuses to play on VHS. A handful of Allied agents parachute into the Bavarian Alps to pull off the mother of all rescue missions at Schloss Adler, a castle that makes AirBnB look a bit tame. There are double-crosses, cable cars, machine-gun duels, and the kind of icy dialogue that only makes sense if you’re chain-smoking through the 1960s.

Condition: worn, well-thumbed, pages yellowing like a chain-smoker’s teeth – in other words, perfect. Smells faintly of damp attics and adventure. If you want a pristine copy, you’re in the wrong shop. If you want Alistair MacLean yelling “Action!” in paperback form, this is it.

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