Alistair Maclean - British Author Extraordinaire

Alistair MacLean was one of the most successful British novelists of the twentieth century. Renowned for his action and adventure thrillers, his writing style ensured that many of his works have been turned into successful films. Even after his death his novels remain in print and popular in the English market.

Alistair Stuart MacLean was born on the 28th April, 1922 in Glasgow. The son of a Scottish Minister, he grew up speaking Scottish Gaelic as his native language. MacLean would spend much of his childhood in the village of Daviot, just to the south of Inverness. MacLean attended the local school in the Scottish Highlands.

A relative uninteresting childhood was abruptly interrupted when MacLean’s father died, when MacLean was just 14. This caused MacLean and his mother to return to Glasgow. In Glasgow, MacLean attended the Hillhead High School. Academically MacLean was an average pupil and he left at the age of 17.

An innocuous childhood was ended by the start of the Second World War. In 1941, at the age of 19, MacLean joined the Royal Navy. As an Ordinary Seaman, MacLean spent the first couple of years as part of the Home Fleet, cruising along the English coast, onboard the PS Bournemouth Queen.

Promoted to Able Seaman and then Leading Torpedo Operator, MacLean’s first action of the war came in 1943. MacLean was transferred to a light-cruiser, HMS Royalist, which took MacLean into the Atlantic theatre of war, as he escorted two Arctic Convoys. In 1944 the Royalist moved to the Mediterranean theatre, where it was involved in the invasion of southern France and operations in the Aegean Sea. In the final year of the war, MacLean sailed with the Royalist’ to the Far East theatre, and after the Japanese surrender, helped evacuate liberated POWs from Changi Prison in Singapore.

HMS Royalist - PD-copyright expired

In the latter part of MacLean’s life he would claim that he had been caught and tortured by the Japanese. These claims have never been verified and look to have been purely drunken concoctions.
Following the end of the Second World War, MacLean was released from the Royal Navy. At the age of 24 he enrolled to study English at the University of Glasgow, graduating with honours in 1953. No mean achievement for someone with English as a second language.

With his degree achieved, MacLean soon found employment as a teacher of English and History at Gallowflat Secondary School in his native Glasgow.

As a student, MacLean had written short stories for extra income. MacLean continued this exercise during his spare time. In 1954 he entered a Glasgow Herald writing competition, with his maritime story Dileas’. MacLean won the competition and the GBP100 which went with it.

The publishers, William Collins, were so impressed with the storytelling ability of MacLean that they commissioned a maritime novel from him. Thus MacLean wrote his first novel, "HMS Ulysses", using his wartime naval experience as the basis. "HMS Ulysses" tells the tale of a ship escorting merchant vessels on their way to Russia. Published in 1955, it was an instant hit, and quickly acclaimed as one of the greatest stories of naval life and death.

MacLean was soon able to quit his job as a school teacher, and concentrate solely on his writing career. There followed a steady stream of novels devoted to adventures, war and spy stories. By the end of his writing career MacLean had published twenty-eight novels; one collection of short stories (The Lonely Sea’, 1985); and three non-fiction works ("All about Lawrence of Arabia", 1962; "Alistair MacLean Introduces Scotland", 1972; and "Captain Cook", 1972).

It was though for his novels that MacLean gained his fame. He followed up "HMS Ulysses" with one of the all time war classics, "Guns of Navarone" (1957), and another seafaring war novel in "South by Java Head" (1957). In 1959, MacLean finally moved away from his warfare comfort zone, and released his first spy story with "The Last Frontier".

Over time the nature of MacLean’s work changed, and many biographers have noted four distinct periods of writing.

Between 1955 and 1959, MacLean wrote four novels; "HMS Ulysses" (1955), "Guns of Navarone" (1957), "South by Java Head" (1957) and "The Last Frontier" (1959). These were all third person epic tales.

In 1959, MacLean changed his narrative style in writing; "Night Without End" (1959), "Fear is the Key" (1961), "The Dark Cursader" (1961), "The Golden Rendezvous" (1962), "The Satan Bug" (1962) and "Ice Station Zebra" (1963). All of these were written in the first person narrative. All were set in the current time period, and instilled a sense of humour in to his work, as well as highly detailed plots. This is often seen as the pinnacle of his career.

Following a three year break from writing, MacLean returned again with; "When Eight Bells Toll" (1966), "Where Eagles Dare" (1967), "Force Ten from Navarone" (1968), "Puppet on a Chain" (1969), "Caravan to Vaccares" (1970) and "Bear Island" (1971). MacLean returned with a new cinematic style, the success of earlier film adaptations, had seen MacLean turn to the more lucrative world of cinema and screenplays.

The fourth period has often been described as the decline of MacLean although this is unfair as there are some good novels during the period 1973-1986. The novels from this period comprise; "The Way to Dusty Death" (1973), "Breakheart Pass" (1974), "Circus" (1975), "The Golden Gate" (1976), Seawitch’ (1977), "Goodbye California" (1978), "Athabasca" (1980), "River of Death" (1981), Partisans’ (1982), "Floodgate" (1983), "San Andreas" (1984) and "Santorini" (1986). This period has been described lazily described with excessive dialogue, although in my opinion San Andreas’ is far superior to HMS Ulysses’ both of which are set in the same ocean.

In the early 1960′s MacLean undertook an experiment as to whether his books sold themselves, or whether it was his name that was selling his work. "Dark Crusader" (1960) and "Satan Bug" were both written using the pseudonym, Ian Stuart. Both books proved to be literary successes, but it failed to verify that it was the content of the books that was the selling point. Any fan of MacLean would easily see the author’s style and characteristic in the two novels. Both books were later re-released with MacLean acknowledged as the author.

The style was obvious. There is a lack of sex throughout his work. Female characters were normally only a supportive role and were often only a hindrance to the telling of a good story. There is though always a leading man, a hero devoted to their work or task at hand. Facing the lead character would be overwhelming odds of villains or the elements. Villains would range from Nazis to Communists, from drug dealers to terrorists and blackmailers. The heroes would be calm individuals but pushed to their physically limits to fight those overwhelming odds.

The harsh elements were the other main theme of all of MacLean’s works, often stories were based in the Arctic north, be it land or seas. The sea plays a big part in almost half of MacLean’s work as he drew on his own personal knowledge to write detailed backdrops for his stories.

At his peak MacLean was one of the best selling authors of his day. In fact MacLean’s books sold so well that he moved to Switzerland as a tax exile.

A large number of MacLean’s novels were turned into successful films, the most notable being the wartime epics of "Guns of Navarone" and "Where Eagles Dare". In total 14 of the 28 MacLean novels were turned into film with greater or lesser acclaim, even today the majority can be found on DVD format.

MacLean’s personal life was a mixture of good times and bad. In essence MacLean was not the most enthusiastic of writers, seeing writing as a means to an end rather than for any personal belief. When he had made enough money in the 1960′s MacLean actually stopped writing and instead he ran a series of hotels, including Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor.

This though proved to be only a short break, and the pressure of writing a novel a year for most of his adult life took its toil on the man. Turning to alcohol he soon became addicted to it. MacLean was married twice, first to Gisela MacLean with whom he had three sons and then to Marcelle Gorgeus in 1972.

In 1983, MacLean was awarded a Doctorate of Literature by the University of Glasgow, as recognition for his literary work. By this time though MacLean had returned to the continent to live. Alcohol was impacting on MacLean’s health, though. It is blamed for bringing about his premature death at the age of 65 in Munich in 1987. He was though returned to Switzerland to be buried, and is interned in the Protestant churchyard in Cligny, Switzerland. He is buried near to the grave of Richard Burton, the star of "Where Eagles Dare".

Even after his death MacLean is literary impact was still apparent. MacLean had been commission to come up with some story lines for movie adaptation. Thus he invented the UNACO series, who’s characters were taken on in eight novels by John Dennis and Alastair MacNeill. In even more recent years UNACO characters have been adopted by Hugh Miller in a further two novels, whilst the characters from Navarone have been written up by Sam Llewellyn.

MacLean’s work is still as readable today as it was when it was written. Thus the majority of his novels are still in production in the United Kingdom today. His work influenced many other novelists, including Clive Cussler and Len Deighton, whilst film adaptations have also brought his work to a vast number of observers.

Copyright - First Published 26th March 2008

Keywords - Alistair Maclean, Alistair MacNeill, Guns of Navrone author, navarone, narvarone author