Alistair MacLean Alistair Stuart MacLean ( ; 21 April 1922 – 2 February 1987 ) was a Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers or adventure stories , the best known of which are perhaps " The Guns of Navarone " , " Ice Station Zebra " and " Where Eagles Dare " , all three having been made into successful films . He also wrote two novels under the pseudonym Ian Stuart . Life . MacLean was the son of a Christian pastor , and learned English as his second language after his mother tongue , Scottish Gaelic . He was born in Glasgow but spent much of his childhood and youth in Daviot , ten miles south of Inverness . He was the third of four sons . He joined the Royal Navy in 1941 , serving in World War II with the ranks of Ordinary Seaman , Able Seaman , and Leading Torpedo Operator . He was first assigned to PS " Bournemouth Queen " , a converted excursion ship fitted for anti - aircraft guns , on duty off the coasts of England and Scotland . From 1943 , he served in HMS " Royalist " , a " Dido " - class light cruiser . In " Royalist " he saw action in 1943 in the Atlantic theatre , on two Arctic convoys and escorting carrier groups in operations against " Tirpitz " and other targets off the Norwegian coast . In 1944 he and the ship served in the Mediterranean theatre , as part of the invasion of southern France and in helping to sink blockade runners off Crete and bombard Milos in the Aegean . During this time MacLean may have been injured in a gunnery practice accident . In 1945 , in the Far East theatre , MacLean and " Royalist " saw action escorting carrier groups in operations against Japanese targets in Burma , Malaya , and Sumatra . ( MacLean ' s late - in - life claims that he was captured by the Japanese and tortured have been dismissed by both his son and his biographer as drunken ravings . ) After the Japanese surrender , " Royalist " helped evacuate liberated POW s from Changi Prison in Singapore . MacLean was released from the Royal Navy in 1946 . He then studied English at the University of Glasgow , graduating in 1953 , and then worked as a school teacher in Rutherglen . While a university student , MacLean began writing short stories for extra income , winning a competition in 1954 with the maritime story " Dileas " . The publishing company Collins asked him for a novel and he responded with " HMS Ulysses " , based on his own war experiences , as well as credited insight from his brother Ian , a Master Mariner . The novel was a great success and MacLean was soon able to devote himself entirely to writing war stories , spy stories and other adventures . In the early 1960s , MacLean published two novels under the pseudonym " Ian Stuart " in order to prove that the popularity of his books was due to their content rather than his name on the cover . They sold well , but MacLean made no attempt to change his writing style and his fans may easily have recognized him behind the Scottish pseudonym . MacLean ' s books eventually sold so well that he moved to Switzerland as a tax exile . From 1963 – 1966 , he took a hiatus from writing to run a hotel business in England . MacLean ' s later books were not as well received as the earlier publications and , in an attempt to keep his stories in keeping with the time , he sometimes lapsed into over - improbable plots . He also struggled constantly with alcoholism , which eventually brought about his death in Munich in 1987 . He is buried a few yards from Richard Burton in Céligny , Switzerland . He was married twice and had three sons with his first wife ; the third son was adopted . MacLean was awarded a Doctor of Letters by the University of Glasgow in 1983 . Style . Compared to other thriller writers of the time , such as Ian Fleming , MacLean ' s books are exceptional in one way at least : they have an absence of sex and most are short on romance because MacLean thought that such diversions merely serve to slow down the action . Nor do the MacLean books resemble the later techno - thriller approach . Instead , he lets little hinder the flow of events in his books , making his heroes fight against seemingly unbeatable odds and often pushing them to the limits of their physical and mental endurance . MacLean ' s protagonists are usually calm , cynical men entirely devoted to their work and often carrying some kind of secret knowledge . A sometime twist is that one of the hero ' s closest companions turns out a traitor . Nature , especially the sea and the Arctic north , plays an important part in MacLean ' s stories , and he used a variety of exotic parts of the world as settings to his books . Only one of them , " When Eight Bells Toll " , is set in his native Scotland . MacLean ' s best books are often those in which he was able to make use of his own direct knowledge of warfare and seafaring , such as " HMS Ulysses " which is now considered a classic of naval fiction . Stylistically , MacLean ' s novels can be broken down into four periods : Certain themes are repeated in virtually all of MacLean ' s novels . For example , they typically feature a male character who is depicted as physically and morally indestructible ( for instance , Carrington in " HMS Ulysses " or Andrea in " The Guns of Navarone " ) ; such characters are also often described as having an almost inhuman tolerance for alcohol consumption ( such as the Count in " The Last Frontier " or Jablonsky in " Fear is the Key " ) . MacLean was known to reuse plot devices , characterizations , and even specific phrases . For example , the description " huddled shapelessness of the dead " occurs in some form in several stories , while the villain , on realising that his death is imminent , has a face contorted into a " snarling rictus " ( or wolfish grin ) of terror . Names are often reused as well , with chief female characters being frequently named Mary , or a variation thereupon ( Marie , Maria ) , while a number of MacLean ' s lead male characters are named John . His villains usually feature a coldly competent and ruthless mastermind paired with a hulking , brutishly powerful subordinate . " Force 10 from Navarone " , MacLean ' s only sequel , picks up from where the film version of " The Guns of Navarone " leaves off , not his original novel . Otherwise MacLean eschewed inter - novel continuity , save for two instances of a character from one novel appearing in another – Colonel De Graaf from " Puppet on a Chain " reappeared in " Floodgate " , and Professor Benson from " Goodbye California " making a second appearance in " Santorini " . Altogether , MacLean published 28 novels and a collection of short stories , as well as books about T . E . Lawrence and James Cook . There was confusion around MacLean ' s pseudonym " Ian Stuart " . A thriller titled " Snow on the Ben " by " Ian Stuart " was published by Ward in 1961 , the same year as " The Dark Crusader " , but this was actually by an English author – Ian Stuart ( 1927 – 1993 ) , who also wrote as Malcolm Gray . MacLean used the pseudonym only once more ( on " The Satan Bug " , 1962 ) . Some reference works still list " Snow on the Ben " as a possible MacLean novel . Many of MacLean ' s novels were made into films , but none completely captured the level of detail and the intensity of his writing style as exemplified in classics such as " Fear is the Key " ; the two most artistically and commercially successful film adaptations were " The Guns of Navarone " and " Where Eagles Dare " . Moreover , MacLean also wrote screenplays , some of them based on his novels and others later novelized by other writers . MacLean wrote the novel and screenplay of " Where Eagles Dare " at the same time ; in effect it was commissioned by Richard Burton , who wanted to make a " boy ' s own " type adventure film that he could take his son to see . The book and screenplay differ markedly in that , in the book , the Smith and Schaffer characters at times go out of their way " not " to kill anyone , whereas in the film they basically shoot anything that moves . In fact , the film contains Clint Eastwood ' s highest on - screen body count , as well as a far more laconic interpretation of the Schaffer character . Around 1980 , MacLean was commissioned by an American movie production company to write a series of story outlines to be subsequently produced as movies . He invented the fictitious United Nations Anti - Crime Organization ( UNACO ) , and the books were later completed by others . Among these are " Death Train " by Alastair MacNeill and " Hostage Tower " by John Denis . " John Denis " was , in fact a pen name for John Edwards ( former editor of the BBC " That ' s Life " programme ) and his collaborator Denis Frost . Some of these works bear little resemblance to MacLean ' s style , especially in their use of gratuitous sex and violence . MacLean ' s influence on future adventure / thriller writers is somewhat hard to measure , due to the conventions and expected requirements of the genre changing . After his death , the popularity of MacLean ' s work saw a decline , and , according to Amazon . com , as of 2006 none of his novels were in print in the US . However , most are currently still in print in paperback in the UK . Also , in 2009 HarperCollins began reissuing 29 of his novels , with new covers . A novel " Krwawe pogranicze " ( Polish " Bloody borderland " ) was released in Poland in 1992 . The novel was allegedly written by Alistair MacLean in 1962 as " Bloody borderland " . In fact , it was a novel by Tadeusz Kostecki " Droga powrotna Płowego Jima " ( Polish " Fawn Jim ' s return way " ) which was released in 1946 and almost forgotten in 1992 . List of works . Novels UNACO books by other authors Golden Girl Series by other authors Movies with Screenplay Contribution Other Movies Allegedly written by Alistair MacLean