Hutchinson 1995. £ 25

This book reviews the life of another one of those adventurers from the early part of this century much in the T.E Lawrence, Peter Kemp and Fred Copeman role. Malreux was a revolutionary and a traveller, he professed his life's aim was "to live dangerously".

He volunteered for Spain and formed a bomber squadron for the Republic in 1937 even though he knew nothing of flying. However, the book skims his career in Spain, although it plays on the meeting with Hemingway in 1944 as Ernest had marched into the Ritz in Paris claiming he had liberated the City. Malreux sought him out and challenged him to a trial of strength demanding from Hemingway the number of men he had commanded in Spain. Hemingway told him a couple of dozen, Malreux replied "moi, deux mille" a facial twitch betraying the extent of his exaggeration.

Malreux's story progresses through his further adventures in the 20th century playing Russian roulette in Paris and planning an attempt to rescue Trotsky in 1928. In 1934 he flew to Berlin to persuade Hitler not to kill the men who fired the Reichstag, and in 1939 he flew to Moscow to persuade Stalin to fight the Germans. His later career included stealing Khmer treasures in the 60's and, being a devotee of De Gaulle, became his minister of culture, being actively involved in the arts and cinema.

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