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Alistair Stuart MacLean (April 28, 1922 - February 2, 1987) was a Scottish novelist, writer of successful thrillers or escapade, a better known of which is peradventure The Guns of Navarone. He likewise utilized a nom de guerre Ian Stuart.

Life
MacLean was the boy of a minister, & learnt English as his second language when his mother tongue Scottish Gaelic. He was natural inside Glasgow but spent much of his childhood & youth around Daviot, near Inverness. He joined a Royal Navy in 1941, serving in World War II as a torpedo man and existence captured per Japanese and tortured. Fallowing a war, he exposed English at a University of Glasgow, graduating in 1953, and so worked as a teacher.

When in the University, MacLean began writing short stories for extrthe income & won a competition inside 1954 with the nautical story "Dileas". A publishing company Collins asked him for a novel & he responded by having H.M.S. Ulysses, according to his have war lives. It was a great profits & MacLean was before long entity to devote himself completely to writing war stories, spy stories and more escapade.

In a early Sixties, MacLean published deuce novels under the nom de guerre "Ian Stuart" sequentially to prove that a popularity of his books was owed to their content like than to his title on the handle. It sold swell, however 1 must remember that MacLean manufactured there are no attempt to vary his style & his fans might easy keep around recognized him behind a Scottish anonym. MacLean's books one of these days sold then easily that he experienced to move to Switzerland as a tax exile. From either 1963–1966 he was retired from either writing when he ran the hotel business around England.

MacLean's late books were non too standard when a earliest ones &, withinside an attempt to keep his stories in keeping by using a period, he periodically lapsed into excessively unlikely plots. He as well struggled constantly using alcoholism which eventually caused his dying within Munich in 1987. He was married twice & experienced trinity sons by having his 1st married woman.

Style of writing

In comparison more thriller writers of the instance, like Ian Fleming, MacLean's books are exceptional around 1 way at least: it is absentminded of sex & short of romance because MacLean thought that such diversions just help to slow down the action. Nor run it resemble a supplementary recent techno-thriller approach. Instead MacLean lets little hinder a flow of cases around his books, making his heroes fight against on the face of it unbeatable odds & typically pushing the children to the hilt of their physical & mental endurance. MacLean's heroes come ordinarily calm, misanthropical men totally devoted to their operate & typically carrying a bit of sort of secret cognition. a characteristic twist is that one of the hero's nighest partner turns bent become the traitor.

Nature & severity, especially a sea and a arctic northerly, plays an significant section within MacLean's stories, & he utilized the kind of exotic area of the globe when settings to his books. Simply one of the two, Whilst Eight Bells Toll, is placed inside his native Scotland. MacLean's better books come typically people where he was entity to produce utilize of his have straight cognition of warfare & seafare like H.M.S. Ulysses which is currently considered the classic of naval fiction.

Stylistically MacLean's novels may be broken down into quadruplet periods:

H.M.S. Ulysses through The Endure Frontier. These featured third-person narratives & a somewhat larger-than-life tone, and were mostly placed in the period of Globe War II. A Previous Frontier contained open philosophic & moral themes that were non swell received. MacLean so switched gears to —

Nighttime While forgoing Prevent across Ice Station Zebra. These tons featured first person (and occasionally unreliable) narration laced with the dry, sardonic, self-deprecating humour, & were tons placed within contemporary days. Which are actually MacLean's virtually all intensely plotted tales, masterfully mingling thriller & detective elements. MacLean so retired from either writing for ternion years, giving with —

Whilst Eight Bells Toll across Bear Island, the varied collection that however maintained the commonly superiority, by using the few books harking back to every of the number 1 2 periods however usually ingesting a further cinematic approach (non surprising since he began writing screenplays in the period of this period). Finally —

A Way to Dusty Demise to the prevent. There were those days are gone 1st-human stories, & his prose typically sagged badly, by having excessive dialogue, lazily described scenes, & unfortunate characterization. A few of the books come better than others, & completely sold reasonably swell, however MacLean never regained his classic form.

Altogether MacLean published Xxviii novels & the collection of short stories, besides when books about T. E. Lawrence and James Cook.

MacLean likewise wrote screenplays, occasionally of the two according to his novels & others late novelized by more writers. Around 1980, he wwhen accredited by an Our contries movie production company to write the series of story outlines to exist as afterwards produced as picture. Although he did write all about the fictitious United Nations organisation, the books were late completed by others. Among which are actually "Hostage Tower" by John Denis & Dying Train by Alastair MacNeill. A select few one works bear little resemblance to MacLean's style, especially in their utilise of gratuitous sex & violence.

Numbers of of MacLean's novels were processed into films, however none wholly captured a level of detail & a intensity of his literary genre equally exemplified within classics like Fear is the Key; them virtually all artistically & commercially successful film adaptations were The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare.

Alistair MacLean was awarded a Doctor's degree of Literature at the University of Glasgow within 1983.

List of works
Novels H.M.S. Ulysses (1955) The Guns of Navarone (1957) South by Java Head (1957) A Endure Frontier, in the America A Secret Ways (1959) Nighttime endlessly (1960) Fear Is the Key (1961) A Dark Crusader, in the United states A Melanise Shrike (when Ian Stuart, 1961) A Golden Rendezvous (1962) The Satan Bug (as Ian Stuart, 1962) Ice Station Zebra (1963) Whilst Eight Bells Toll (1966) Where Eagles Dare (1967) Force 10 from Navarone (1968) Puppet in the Chain (1969) Caravan to Vaccarès (1970) Bear Island (1971) A Way to Dusty Dying (1973) Breakheart Pass (1974) Circus (1975) A Golden Gate (1976) Seawitch (1977) Adieu California (1978) Athabasca (1980) Flow of any stream of Dying (1981) Partisans (1982) Floodgate (1983) San Andreas (1984) Santorini (1986)

Collection of short stories A Lonely Sea (1985)

More books Tons Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Alistair MacLean Introduces Scotland (1972) Captain Cook (1972)

UNACO books by other authors Surety Tower (1980) (by John Denis) Air Inflict Unity is Down (1981) (by John Denis) Dying Train (1989) (by Alastair MacNeill) Nighttime Follow (1989) (by Alastair MacNeill) Red Alert (1990) (by Alastair MacNeill) Period of the Assassins (1991) (by Alastair MacNeill) Dead Prevent (1992) (by Alastair MacNeill) Golden Girl (1992) (by Simon Gandolfi) Code Breaker (1993) (by Alastair MacNeill) Golden Web (1993) (by Simon Gandolfi) Golden Payback (1994) (by Simon Gandolfi) Rendezvous (1995) (by Alastair MacNeill) Prime Target (1997) (by Hugh Miller) Borrowed Period (1998) (by Hugh Miller)

Notes on the Books
Inflict 10 from either Navarone, MacLean's lone sequel, picks higher from either in which a film version leaves polish off, non his original novel. MacLean's simply more utilize of inter-novel continuity is a police character from either Puppet in the Chain reappearing within Floodgate. There use at times been reports of the "lost" MacLean novel coroneted Snow on the Ben, however it appears to become by the different Ian Stuart (refer ISBN 0708965032) MacLean's main female characters come nigh universally known as occasionally variation of Mary, such as Mary itself, Marie, or even Maria. MacLean was known to plagiarize himself at times; for instance, a description "huddled shapelessness of the dead" occurs inside a few form inside many stories. Clive Cussler lifted (or paid court to) Ice Station Zebra inside his Raise a Titanic! & A Secret Ways inside his A Mediterrean Caper.

Alistair MacLean
Fan site that features a biography, bibliography, movie list, covers, and message board.

Ice Station Zebra
A review of the thriller. Rated 4/5.

Alistair (Stuart) MacLean (1922-1987)
Biography of the Scottish writer, who also used the pen name Ian Stuart. Includes selected bibliography.

MacLean, Alistair (1922-1987)
Biographical essay on the popular author of fast-paced adventure stories.

Alistair MacLean ("Ian Stuart")
Short biography and select bibliography.

Alistair MacLean, 1922-1987
Biographical profile and a list of his books.

IMDb: Alistair MacLean
Films based on his stories.