Mastodawn

https://www.thenational.scot/news/17524057.makes-scottish-bestseller/

What makes a Scottish bestseller?

Prof 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

5/5

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #thriller #film #movies #actionmovies

https://flashbak.com/the-pioneering-novels-and-kick-ass-thrills-of-alistair-maclean-428930/

“MacLean was interested in writing stories with unreliable narrators which could lead to double & triple-twists in the storyline… From 1963–1971, MacLean wrote a series of near-perfect thrillers… which established him as the most successful author on the planet”

4/5

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #thriller #film #movies #actionmovies

The Pioneering Novels and Kick-Ass Thrills of Alistair MacLean - Flashbak

Alistair MacLean was working as a teacher when he won first prize in a short story competition. The competition was held by the Glasgow Herald newspaper in 1954. MacLean’s story was called ‘The Dileas‘ (‘The Faithful‘). It was the story of a boat shipwrecked on the west coast of Scotland. Maclean (1922-87) was a teacher … Continue reading "The Pioneering Novels and Kick-Ass Thrills of Alistair MacLean"

Flashbak

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n24/e.s.-turner/sorcerer-s-apprentice

“Ach, any idiot can write a book”

—From 1991: E.S. Turner reviews Jack Webster’s biography of Alistair MacLean – & looks at posthumous workings of MacLean plotlines – in the London Review of Books

3/5

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #thriller #film #movies #actionmovies

E.S. Turner · Sorcerer’s Apprentice

London Review of Books

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/books/in-praise-of-alistair-maclean-and-the-male-romance.html

“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

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #thriller #film #movies #actionmovies

In Praise of Alistair MacLean and the Male Romance

“Years later, I understood that these were in fact romance novels for boys, which means very little romance and lots of danger and battle-forged camaraderie.”

The New York Times

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