Beyond the Blue Mountain

This is a wonderful memoir from Alec McDonald, written in an easy going light-hearted style. From his schoolboy challenges and forays into rock climbing and adventurous travels, then onto University and his eventual career with MI6, it was a page-turner from the start. An interesting life story, well told, and definitely one to recommend to your bookworm friends or even reluctant young adult readers who may be inspired to start an adventure of their own. Highly recommended.

Remarkable book, very interesting subject. A life well lived, I'd say. A daredevil until the end. Glad you have toned down the rock climbing.

Beyond the Blue Line by Alec McDonald
I found this a delightful book to read despite the fact this is not an espionage novel nor even a travelogue book per se. Mr. McDonald states at the beginning he did not pass this book through channels even though he worked for intelligence. After reading his book, I can understand why. The spy adventures are laughable and hard to understand the cost involved to do counter-espionage on McDonald.
Alec was born in 1930 and I believe as I write still alive which makes 91 years old. His passion rock and mountain climbing which he did all over the world and only stopped a few years ago.
Not a good student unless his back was against the wall, he somehow made it through Cambridge with a skill in languages. When not pretending to be a student he and a friend found ways to travel in France, Iceland and islands north of Norway on little or no money. Amazing!
His assignments in government included Greece, Caracas, Beirut, Benghazi, Tripoli and his last and I believed most enjoyed Oman. None of these places I believe are hot in the Cold War sense and yet he often relates how he was required to lose his Soviet minders when meeting a source. So many cars, disguises and people just to follow one man who was probably only going to get info that was available in the local newspaper.
And yet I found this book a good read and to Mr. McDonald; well done you on a life well lived and enjoyed.

Interesting overall but with some frustrating gaps.

The intro to this book explains that it was begun as a memoir for children and grandchildren and later expanded for a general readership. This explanation is useful because it doesn't read as a polished memoir. There are lacunae and years brushed over; the most egregious is what happens to his first wife. She is mentioned as having post partum depression with their first child, then the depression recurs over the next several years, and eventually she just… disappears from the story. And then he talk about holidaying with the woman who was initially his PA, and with whom he spends his retirement. In a book designed for the family this makes sense - the kids know what happened to their mum. For me this was just bewildering.

As the blurb outlines, this is partly the memoir of a rock climber, about which I’m not especially interested except that it does mean travel to interesting places, and partly the memoir of an almost accidental MI6 officer. That bit is also mostly interesting in the way it's told here because of the travel involved. I’m not particularly up on the political intricacies of places like Benghazi in the 1960s and 70s so there were swathes of narrative where the assumed knowledge - which I don't have - meant I didn’t have a solid grip of what was happening: names that meant nothing, dates likewise. Nonetheless, this was an overall entertaining story with some interesting insights into different places from the perspective of a intelligence officer who didn’t seem to perceive himself as a spy.

Thoroughly enjoyable and easy to read. I found the insight into the different parts of the author's life all very interesting and a good trip through childhood to teenage years to student life and on into the most amazing adult existence. Packed full of moments, hilarious, poignant, terrifying - it has everything. It did rather make me feel I've wasted my life, but then if there are people out there packing this much in then maybe it's best if some of us take life a little more slowly and leave them to it!

Lovely memoir of a life well lived and wonderful to pass these memories to his family. Starting from boyhood and rock climbing, adventure travel, education, family, work, getting ready to slow down although still climbing. Really enjoyed the travel aspects and living in the different locations, fascinating stuff and what an amazing opportunity. Thank you #NetGalley for the copy to review.

An easy and enjoyable read, the life of a working class Liverpool lad who, to his surpise, was recruited for M16. The book is part biography, part travel book, and works well because of that.