Getting to Know the General by Graham Greene First Edition The Bodley Head 1984. A fine copy with no inscriptions, foxing or toning. Covers are bright and unblemished. In a fine dust jacket with no creasing or tears. Not price clipped.

In Graham Greene's Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvement (1984), the celebrated novelist chronicles his unlikely five-year friendship with Panama's charismatic de facto ruler, General Omar Torrijos Herrera. Summoned in 1976 to witness the nation's struggle for sovereignty, Greene immerses himself in the humid jungles and tense negotiations over the Panama Canal, shadowing Torrijos—a chain-smoking visionary blending populist fervor with leftist dreams of Central American unity.
Through escapades with loyal aide "Chuchu" Martínez, Greene befriends exiled revolutionaries and rubs shoulders with Gabriel García Márquez at treaty signings. Yet tragedy looms: Torrijos's 1981 plane crash, shrouded in whispers of CIA sabotage. Greene's elegiac memoir weaves wry humor, political insight, and tender affection, transforming travelogue into poignant tribute to a flawed leader's quest for justice amid Cold War shadows.