Alistair MacLean

(born April 1922 - died February 1987) - Glasgow

Alistair MacLean

Glasgow-born Alistair MacLean was the hugely successful author of adventure thrillers and spy books, many of which have been filmed. A native Gaelic speaker, MacLean was raised in Daviot in the Highlands before attending high school in Glasgow. In 1941 he joined the Royal Navy, becoming a torpedo operator in the Home, North Sea and Mediterranean theatres during WWII. He also served in the far east.

After the war, MacLean studied English at Glasgow University and became a school teacher after graduating in 1953. His first novel, HMS Ulysses, was published in 1955. A lone cruiser battles German U-boats, a mutinous crew and the harsh North Sea weather in a doomed attempt to protect a convoy - a novel which set the template for many of his later novels. His most famous novel is The Guns of Navarone, the 1961 film of the novel won several Golden Globe awards and an Oscar for Best Special Effects. Force 10 from Navarone, written in 1968, was a sequel to the film and not the book.

MacLean also wrote two novels under the pseudonym Ian Stuart, The Dark Crusader and The Satan Bug. When Eight Bells Toll was the only novel set in Scotland.

Alistair MacLean never considered himself a novelist, and appeared not to enjoy writing. He once told the New York Post "I'm not a novelist, I'm a storyteller. There's no art in what I do, no mystique". He has also said "I'm not a born writer, and I don't enjoy writing. I wrote each book in thirty-five days flat - just to get the darned thing finished." Despite his reticence, he sold 30 million novels.

HarperCollins are republishing many of his novels in collected form.

Key titles

  • Cover scan of The Guns Of Navarone
    The Guns Of Navarone
    Twelve hundred British soldiers isolated on the small island of Kheros off the Turkish coast, waiting to die. Twelve hundred lives in jeopardy, lives that could be saved if only the guns could be silenced.
  • Cover scan of HMS Ulysses
    HMS Ulysses
    In this classic novel of heroism and the sea, Alistair MacLean tells the story of Convoy FR77 to Murmansk - a voyage that pushes men to the limits of human endurance, crippled by enemy attack and the bitter cold of the Arctic.
  • Cover scan of When Eight Bells Toll
    When Eight Bells Toll
    Millions of pounds in gold bullion are being pirated in the Irish Sea. Investigations by the British Secret Service, and a sixth sense, have brought Philip Calvert to a bleak, lonely bay in the Western Highlands. But the sleepy atmosphere of Torbay is deceptive.

Bibliography

Collection of short stories

  • The Lonely Sea (1985)

Other books

  • All About Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
  • Alistair MacLean Introduces Scotland (1972)
  • Captain Cook (1972)

Collections