Alistair MacLean Books In Order

Publication Order of Guns of Navarone Books

Publication Order of Alistair MacLean's UNACO Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Alastair MacLean Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Alastair MacLean Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Alistair MacLean was one of the popular Scottish novelists who used to write thrillers and adventure novels. His writing career includes a total of 29 bestselling novels, which helped him to be recognized among the outstanding writers of his time. Many of the popular novels written by MacLean have been adapted into famous movies. Some of them include The Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra, etc. He has also written a couple of novels under the pen name Ian Stuart. MacLean was born on 21 April, 1922 in Shettleston, Glasgow, Scotland, and died on 2 February 1987 in Munich, Germany at the age of 64. At the time of his birth, MacLean’s father used to work as a minister in the Church of Scotland. As a child, he studied English as the second language, his mother tongue being Scottish Gaelic. After being born in Glasgow, author MacLean went on to spend most of his childhood days and growing years in Daviot, which is located 10 miles to the south of Inverness. MacLean had three other brothers, with whom he grew up.

In the year 1941, MacLean became a part of the Royal Navy and went on to serve in the Second World War. He started from being an Ordinary Seaman and later became an Able Seaman and then a Leading Torpedo Operator. As per his first mission, he was assigned the duty near the coasts of Scotland and England on the PS Bournemouth Queen ship. During the next 4 years, MacLean served on different missions and changed several ships. He also traveled to a number of countries during this time and got injured on a few occasions during the battles. After serving for a period of 5 years during the Second World War, MacLean was released from his duty in the Royal Navy in the year 1946. After this, he decided to study English at the Glasgow University and eventually graduated in the year 1953. The first job that he took up after his graduation was that of a school teacher in an elementary school in Rutherglen. During his days at the university, author MacLean had started writing short stories in order to earn some extra income. He even won a writing competition in the year 1954 for his maritime story titled ‘Dileas’. Seeing his excellent writing skills, the publishing company named Collins asked him to write a specimen novel for them.

MacLean responded to them with the highly successful novel titled ‘HMS Ulysses’, which was based on his experiences during the Second World War. The novel also included a few insights from his brother named Ian, who had served as a Master Mariner during the war. After the immense success of the novel, MacLean got a chance to be recognized as a talented writer and from then on, he continued to devote his entire time writing about war stories, adventure novels, spy stories, etc. During the early 1960s, he published a couple of novels under the pseudonym of Ian Stuart in order to prove to the critics that the popularity of his novels was not due to his original name on the front cover but because of their content. Although both the books sold quite well, author Alistair MacLean did not make any attempts to make changes in his style of writing. Due to this, his fans were easily able to recognize him behind his Scottish pen name. In the following years, his books began selling so well that he had to shift to Switzerland in order to attempt tax exile. Between the years 1963 and 1966, MacLean had to take a break from writing in order to focus on setting up his hotel business in London. Later, when he took to writing once again, his books were not received that well as compared to his earlier releases. Therefore, in a desperate attempt to keep up with the passing time, MacLean began experimenting with unduly improbable stories. He had also become alcoholic and struggled with his drinking habits constantly. Eventually, author MacLean died in the year 1987 in Munich. His body was buried in Celigny, Switzerland, next to the grave of Richard Burton. MacLean had married two times in his life and had a couple of sons from his first wife. He had also adopted a third son later. The Glasgow University had awarded author MacLean with a Doctor of Letters honorary degree in the year 1983.

One of the popular novel series written by author Alistair MacLean was titled ‘Guns of Navarone’. It consists of a total of 4 books published between the years 1957 and 1998. The first novel of the series was published under the title ‘The Guns of Navarone’. It was released by the Fawcett Books publishing house in the year 1957. The plot of this novel shows that an entire team of navy had tried to defeat the Navarone guns, but were not able to succeed in their attempts. They attacked in full scale in order to drive back the team of navy. In order to give it one more try, the navy decided to send a team of only 5 men, all of whom were specialists in dealing with deadly situations. This novel proved to be a classic thriller and was very well received by the readers all over the world. The success of this novel allowed it to be adapted into a movie of the same name.

The second novel of the series written by author Alistair MacLean was published under the title ‘Force 10 From Navarone’. It was released in the year 1968 by the Fontana Books publishing house. The plot of this novel serves as a thrilling sequel to the highly successful first novel of the series. It also depicts an adventure of the Second World War, just like the previous novel. In the opening sequence of the plot of this novel, it is shown that the Navarone guns were silenced by the team of 5 brave men. But, they did not have any time to rest. Just before the death of the last sounds of the popular guns, the team of Andrea, Keith Mallory, and Dusty Miller, were asked to travel with their parachutes in the war stricken regions of Yugoslovakia. They were asked to rescue a team of Partisans and carry out a secret mission. They come to know that the mission is very much deadly and must be hidden even from their allies. This novel too was very much liked by the readers and was appreciated by the fans of author Alistair MacLean all over the world. This gave him a lot of confidence to write many more exciting novels in his successful writing career.

7 Responses to “Alistair MacLean”

1. Xico Pérez: 3 years ago

   Hola BSIO, you have listed the 1993 book titled “Fire of Humiliation”, but I cannot find anything concrete about this book. Do you have any sources?

   Reply
   • Graeme: 3 years ago

     Hi Xico – I researched it and yes it looks like while planned, that one was never released. I’ll remove it from the listing. Cheers

     Reply
     • Xico Pérez: 3 years ago

       Thank you for this and the for the website.

       Reply
2. john: 4 years ago

   are dark crusader / black shrike separate books

   Reply
   • Graeme: 4 years ago

     Hi John,

     I have researched it and they are the same book. Same deal with Last Frontier and the Secret Ways. Just alternate titles.

     Reply
3. jimmy s: 5 years ago

   He didn’t “have to move to Switzerland” to avoid taxes. He could have paid tax (at the albeit savage 98% marginal rate) and helped fund his less fortunate compatriots social, educational and health services – he simply chose not to do that, like Sean Connery et al

   Reply
   • Jimc: 4 years ago

     Why work if the government takes all your earnings. The socialism in the UK after WWII doomed the country to poverty even though they had developed computers before any other country.

     Reply