Alistair MacLean: A life

by Jack Webster

A biography of the author of such novels as "HMS Ulysses", "The Guns of Navarone", "Ice Station Zebra" and "Where Eagles Dare".

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

326 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 1991

Reviews

[Peter Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and ultimately sad.The world's best selling author of the 1950s to 1980s with a huge income and the freedom wealth gives you ended virtually alone in a small apartment in Dalmatia after succumbing to drink,a terrible second marriage to a "gold digger" and spendthrift and a deep seated belief that his books were rubbish and wishing he could create a meaningful book.Always enthralling and quite well written.A good but not a great read.

[John Pringle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The definitive book on Alistair MacLean – possibly still the only biography written about the famous novelist. Jack Webster interviewed so many people connected with MacLean (from friends, relatives, and former students and work colleagues to actors and producers) that there’s a wealth of information on the man. Webster even travels to Italy to discover exactly why HMS ULYSSES was never made into a movie. My only complaints are that there isn’t enough background detail on the writing of the novels (with the exception of the first two, Webster rather glosses over the others), and he spends way too much time dwelling on MacLean’s childhood (writing at length about the man’s father). Truth be told, I found the opening chapters extremely dull. But that’s not to say this isn’t a really good biography. In fact, it’s incredibly detailed and thorough, and well worth reading.