Alistair MacLean

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Alistair MacLean
Alistair MacLean, late in life
Born 28 April 1922
Glasgow, Scotland
Died 2 February 1987
Munich, Germany

Alistair Stuart MacLean (April 28, 1922 - February 2, 1987) was a Scottish novelist who wrote successful thrillers or adventure stories, the best known of which are perhaps The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare. He also used the pseudonym Ian Stuart.

Contents

[edit] Life

MacLean was the son of a minister, and learned English as his second language after his mother tongue Scottish Gaelic. He was born in Glasgow but spent much of his childhood and youth in Daviot, near Inverness.

He joined the Royal Navy in 1941, serving in World War II with the ranks of Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman, and Leading Torpedo Operator. First he was assigned to PS Bournemouth Queen, a converted excursion ship fitting for anti-aircraft guns, in duties off the coasts of England and Scotland. From 1943, he served on HMS Royalist, a Dido-class light cruiser. On Royalist he saw action in 1943 in the Atlantic theatre, on two Arctic convoys and escorting carrier groups in operations against Tirpitz and other targets off the Norwegian coast; in 1944 in the Mediterrean theatre, as part of the invasion of southern France and in helping to sink blockade runners off Crete and bombard Milos in the Aegean Sea (during this time MacLean may have been injured in a gunnery practice accident); and in 1945, in the Far East theatre, escorting carrier groups in operations against Japanese targets in Burma, Malaya, and Sumatra. (MacLean's late-in-life claims that in this last theatre he was captured by the Japanese and tortured have been dismissed by both his son and his biographer as drunken ravings. [Webster p. 191]) After the Japanese surrender, Royalist helped evacuate liberated POWs from Changi Prison in Singapore.

MacLean was released from the Royal Navy in 1946. He then studied English at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1953, and then worked as a school teacher.

While in the University, MacLean began writing short stories for extra income and won a competition in 1954 with the maritime story "Dileas". The publishing company Collins asked him for a novel and he responded with HMS Ulysses, based on his own war experiences as well as credited insight from his brother Ian, a Master Mariner. The novel was a great success and MacLean was soon able to devote himself entirely to writing war stories, spy stories and other adventures.

In the early 1960s, MacLean published two novels under the pseudonym "Ian Stuart" in order to prove that the popularity of his books was owed to their content rather than to his name on the cover. They sold well, but one must remember that MacLean made no attempt to change his style and his fans may easily have recognized him behind the Scottish pseudonym. MacLean's books eventually sold so well that he had to move to Switzerland as a tax exile. From 1963–1966 he was retired from writing while he ran a hotel business in England.

MacLean's later books were not as well received as the earlier ones and, in an attempt to keep his stories in keeping with the time, he sometimes lapsed into overly improbable plots. He also struggled constantly with alcoholism which eventually brought about his death in Munich in 1987. He is buried a few yards from Richard Burton in Céligny, Switzerland. He was married twice and had three sons with his first wife.

Alistair MacLean was awarded a Doctorate of Literature at the University of Glasgow in 1983.

[edit] Style of writing

Compared to other thriller writers of the time, such as Ian Fleming, MacLean's books are exceptional in one way at least: they have an absence of sex and most are short on romance because MacLean thought that such diversions merely serve to slow down the action. Nor do the MacLean books resemble the more recent techno-thriller approach. Instead, he lets little hinder the flow of events in his books, making his heroes fight against seemingly unbeatable odds and often pushing them to the limits of their physical and mental endurance. MacLean's heroes are usually calm, cynical men entirely devoted to their work and often carrying some kind of secret knowledge. A characteristic twist is that one of the hero's closest cooperators turns out a traitor.

Nature, especially the sea and the arctic north, plays an important part in MacLean's stories, and he used a variety of exotic parts of the world as settings to his books. Only one of them, When Eight Bells Toll, is set in his native Scotland. MacLean's best books are often those in which he was able to make use of his own direct knowledge of warfare and seafare such as HMS Ulysses which is now considered a classic of naval fiction.

Stylistically MacLean's novels can be broken down into four periods:

  1. HMS Ulysses through to The Last Frontier. These featured third-person narratives and a somewhat epic tone, and were mostly set during World War II. The Last Frontier contained overt philosophical and moral themes that were not well received. MacLean then switched gears to —
  2. Night Without End through to Ice Station Zebra. These all featured first person (and sometimes unreliable) narration laced with a dry, sardonic, self-deprecating humour, and were all set in contemporary times. These are MacLean's most intensely plotted tales, masterfully blending thriller and detective elements. MacLean then retired from writing for three years, returning with —
  3. When Eight Bells Toll through to Bear Island, a varied collection that still maintained a generally high quality, with some books harking back to each of the first two periods but usually taking a more cinematic approach (not surprising since he began writing screenplays during this time). Finally —
  4. The Way to Dusty Death to the end. There were no more first-person stories, and his prose often sagged badly, with excessive dialogue, lazily described scenes, and poor characterization. Some of the books are better than others, and all sold reasonably well, but MacLean never regained his classic form.

Altogether MacLean published 28 novels and a collection of short stories, as well as books about T. E. Lawrence and James Cook.

MacLean also wrote screenplays, some of them based on his novels and others later novelized by other writers. Around 1980, he was commissioned by an American movie production company to write a series of story outlines to be subsequently produced as movies. Although he did write about a fictitious United Nations organization, the books were later completed by others. Among these are Hostage Tower by John Denis and Death Train by Alastair MacNeill. Some of these works bear little resemblance to MacLean's style, especially in their use of gratuitous sex and violence.

Many of MacLean's novels were made into films, but none completely captured the level of detail and the intensity of his writing style as exemplified in classics such as Fear is the Key; the two most artistically and commercially successful film adaptations were The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare.

After his death, the popularity of his work saw a decline, and, as per Amazon.com, as of 2006 none of his novels is in print in the U.S. However most are currently still in print in paperback in the UK.

[edit] List of works

Novels

Caravan to Vaccares (1970). 1972 Fontana paperback edition. 189 pages
Enlarge
Caravan to Vaccares (1970). 1972 Fontana paperback edition. 189 pages

Collection of short stories

  • The Lonely Sea (1985)

Other books

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

UNACO books by other authors

  • Hostage Tower (1980) (by John Denis)
  • Air Force 1 is Down (1981) (by John Denis)
  • Death Train (1989) (by Alastair MacNeill)
  • Night Watch (1989) (by Alastair MacNeill)
  • Red Alert (1990) (by Alastair MacNeill)
  • Time of the Assassins (1991) (by Alastair MacNeill)
  • Dead Halt (1992) (by Alastair MacNeill)
  • Golden Girl (1992) (by Simon Gandolfi)
  • Code Breaker (1993) (by Alastair MacNeill)
  • Golden Web (1993) (by Simon Gandolfi)
  • Golden Vengeance (1994) (by Simon Gandolfi)
  • Rendezvous (1995) (by Alastair MacNeill)
  • Storm Force from Navarone (1996) (by Sam Llewellyn)
  • Prime Target (1997) (by Hugh Miller)
  • Borrowed Time (1998) (by Hugh Miller)
  • Thunderbolt from Navarone (1998) (by Sam Llewellyn)

Movies with Screenplay Contribution

Other Movies

[edit] Notes on the books

  • Force 10 from Navarone, MacLean's only sequel, picks up from where the film version of The Guns of Navarone leaves off, not his original novel. The book anticipates the much lighter works of MacLean's later years, and seems to be more of a tossed-off "pastiche" of his other works, occasionally descending into nearly farcical humour.
  • MacLean's only other use of inter-novel continuity is a police character from Puppet on a Chain reappearing in Floodgate.
  • MacLean wrote the novel and screenplay of Where Eagles Dare at the same time. In effect it was commissioned by Richard Burton, who wanted to make a "boy's own" type adventure film that he could take his son to see. The book and screenplay differ markedly in that, in the book, Smith and Schaffer at times go out of their way not to kill anyone, whereas in the film they basically shoot anything that moves. In fact, the film contains Clint Eastwood's highest on-screen body count. Also, in the book, Schaffer is considerably more talkative than Eastwood's considerably more laconic version.
  • Where Eagles Dare and Guns of Navarone have identical plots; the "MacLean Formula" used in both is as follows: impregnable fortress which requires a commando team to be sent in; one of the team is not what he/she seems; betrayal in a public place; barricade a door for the getaway; mountain climbing; escape by jumping into water; good guys win — amazingly, all these contrivances seem to work quite well.
  • There have been reports of a "lost" MacLean novel titled Snow on the Ben, but it appears to be by a different Ian Stuart (refer ISBN 0-7089-6503-2).
  • MacLean's chief female characters are frequently named Mary, or a variation thereupon (Marie, Maria). In earlier books, both the males and females are more deeply characterized; in his later, lesser efforts, women are characterized very shallowly. Though they are often described as intelligent, his female characters usually exhibit little intellectual agility, and are little more than "damsels in distress" whom the dryly sardonic, often condescending protagonist rescues and then wins at the end.
  • His villains become more stereotypical and self-referential over time, usually featuring a coldly competent and ruthless mastermind paired with a hulking, brutishly powerful subordinate.
  • Similarly, a number of MacLean's chief male characters are named John. In a few of his mid-period books, his male protagonists often have "savagely scarred" faces that they believe render them unattractive to women; they are usually proven wrong by book's end.
  • Exceptions to the little-romance rule include one novel where the protagonist is rewarded for his labors by winning the love of the beautiful daughter of a millionaire, and conversely another which ends with its protagonist committing murder to avenge the death of his beloved. In other books, the romantic angle is in the past, as the hero's wife has been killed in a road accident by a "drunken driver".
  • As can be seen, MacLean was known to reuse plot devices, characterizations, and even specific phrases; for example, the description "huddled shapelessness of the dead" occurs in some form in several stories.
  • Clive Cussler plagiarized (or paid homage to) MacLean's Ice Station Zebra in his Raise the Titanic! and MacLean's The Secret Ways in his The Mediterrean Caper. Fans of other thriller authors, such as Len Deighton, Dale Brown, and Tom Clancy, will find plenty of foreshadowings of their favorite authors' work in MacLean's own novels.

[edit] References

  • Lee, Robert A. Alistair MacLean: The Key is Fear. Borgo Press, 1976. ISBN 0-89370-203-X.
  • Webster, Jack. Alistair MacLean: A Life. Chapmans Publishers, 1991. ISBN 1-85592-519-2. (Alternate title: Alistair MacLean: A Biography of a Master Storyteller.)
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