Books by Alistair MacLean
Alistair MacLean (1922-1987) was a bestselling Scottish novelist. Many of his thrillers are set in World War II, during which he served in the British Navy.
“The HMS Ulysses was a light cruiser, one of the warships on the Arctic run that went from Scapa Flow in the Orkneys (way off the top of Scotland) via Norway and around the North Cape to Murmansk. These were incredibly risky and horrible journeys, with the odds that you would come to grief. We lost over 100 ships on those Arctic convoys…I realised, as anyone reading this book will realise, that it’s an essay in exhaustion. The book starts off with a mutiny. The men are knackered, and they have had enough. The Vice Admiral, known as Farmer Giles, has made a series of terrible decisions and suffered a mental breakdown. The captain, whose name is Richard Vallery, has tuberculosis. He’s a sick man, but he’s ultra-loyal to his ship and his crew and is determined to get them through it. This is a key convoy, and he’s there to protect it. Alistair MacLean had served on these convoys. He’d been a wireless and torpedo operator as a seventeen-year-old, so he had hands-on experience of what it was like. That’s key.” Read more...
The Best World War II Thrillers
Graham Hurley, Thriller and Crime Writer
“MacLean was the master of a style of rugged, very masculine action-adventure story that is probably best exemplified today by SAS writers like Andy McNab and Chris Ryan. His books were the source for classic films such as Where Eagles Dare and The Guns of Navarone. Ice Station Zebra is his finest work: men battling against terrifying, extreme conditions, and caught up in a global power play. He’s very good on place and action, small groups of men in terrifying conditions and how they relate to each other.” Read more...
The Best Classic British Thrillers
Matt Lynn, Novelist
Interviews where books by Alistair MacLean were recommended
The Best Classic British Thrillers, recommended by Matt Lynn
Author Matt Lynn says that good thrillers need a sense of foreboding and tension – and a brilliant central character. “The thriller has always been a very political genre, a kind of snapshot in time”
The Best World War II Thrillers, recommended by Graham Hurley
For all its horrors, World War II was a time when things happened to people and that, perhaps, is what makes it such an enduring source of fascination. Graham Hurley, author of the Spoils of War series, recommends five of the best World War II thrillers, including one that reads like nonfiction.
