Alistair MacLean (1922–1987) – author of The Guns of Navarone, Ice Station Zebra, Where Eagles Dare, etc. – was born #OTD, 21 April, 1922. A native #Gaelic speaker, he grew up near Inverness. @NeilDrysdale looks at MacLean’s remarkable life:
1/5
“MacLean was Scottish and another thing I intuitively liked was that his heroes were mostly rough-hewed social nobodies formed by World War II and not on the playing fields of Eton like James Bond. I didn’t know much about British class snobbery then, but I sided with outsiders.”
—Alessandra Stanley, “In Praise of Alistair MacLean & the Male Romance”
2/5
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/books/in-praise-of-alistair-maclean-and-the-male-romance.html
“MacLean was interested in writing stories with unreliable narrators which could lead to double and triple-twists in the storyline […] From 1963–1971, Maclean wrote a series of near-perfect thrillers–Ice Station Zebra, When Eight Bells Toll, Where Eagles Dare, Force 10 From Navarone, Puppet on a Chain, Caravan to Vaccarès, and Bear Island–which established him as the most successful author on the planet.”
3/5
https://flashbak.com/the-pioneering-novels-and-kick-ass-thrills-of-alistair-maclean-428930/
What makes a Scottish bestseller?
Professor Alan Riach looks at the works of “perhaps the three most famous authors in the second half of the 20th century” – Ian Fleming, Alistair MacLean, & Nigel Tranter
4/5
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17524057.makes-scottish-bestseller/
#Scottish #literature #20thcenyury #thriller #JamesBond #historicalfiction
Soillse air Alasdair MacIlleathain, ùghdar fìor shoirbheachail eadarnàiseanta le Gàidhlig
MacLean was a Gael who thought he could have written better in Gaelic than English. Currently available on the BBC iPlayer, “Alistair MacLean – An Sgeulaiche” celebrates his work & laments his loss to Gaelic literature
5/5
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012yfp
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #thriller #Gaeilc #Gaidhlig