Simon Gandolfi about His MacLones

After writing here about The Mysteries of the MacLones, I was contacted by Simon Gandolfi (1933), writer of five (or three) novels that were based on an script for a movie or television series in the 1970s.

Simon Gandolfi wrote: ‘Yes, I wrote five books featuring Trent. The publishers gave me a rough film treatment by MacLean featuring a protagonist living on a converted tug boat, action taking place off the UK coast. I returned the treatment as unusable. The publishers then mislaid it!’

This first few sentences contain a very interesting piece of information: there appears to be an unused (or underused) rough film script, written by MacLean featuring a protagonist living on a converted tug boat and the action is situated off the UK coast. Which means a new writer can be contracted to write entirely new thriller based on Alistair MacLean’s imagination.

‘The protagonist, Trent, and the Caribbean, Central American and Asian story lines were entirely my creation. No reference to these books has been removed (carefully or otherwise) from my site or web blog,’ writes Simon Gandolfi. Still, no mention of these thrillers remain on his site or web blog. Which means that these books were never on his website at all. Now, in 2025, the entire website is defunct.

‘The MacLean Estate did not buy back the film rights – or, if they did, I was never informed and am anxious to know what proof you have as a percentage of film rights were part of my contracts; I stopped writing Trent on discovering the doubts concerning the film rights; Chris Little was the agent. I personally have no idea nor proof or information about any percentage of film rights.’

In theory, Simon Galdolfi should simply have contacted the estate of Alistair MacLean to get clarification. If the doubts about the potential film rights could be resolved much earlier, Simon Gandolfi might even have been tempted to write another novel featuring Trent. Now at 92, he enjoys his retirement.

First publication: 19 July 2017
Second (updated) publication: 20 September 2025

Ian Chapman: The Man Who Discovered Alistair MacLean

Ian Chapman (1925-2019) began his career in book publishing at William Collins, the renowned Scottish publisher. There he read a short story in ‘The Glasgow Herald’ by the (then) unknown Glasgow-born author Alistair MacLean titled ‘Dileas’ about the sea and sailors which had won first prize in a competition run by the paper. Chapman found it finely written and totally compelling.

Chapman contacted MacLean, who was then a teacher at Gallow Flat School in Rutherglen, and invited him to join him and his wife for lunch in the grand Royal Restaurant in Glasgow’s Nile Street. The Chapmans found MacLean to be a wee bit dour with a strong Highland accent and showed little enthusiasm when Chapman suggested that he should write a novel for William Collins.

However, the Chapmans persisted at the lunch and probed MacLean on his war experiences in the Royal Navy when he sailed on the Murmansk convoys to northern Russia in terrible weather conditions and experienced savage bombardment from the German navy. Chapman instantly recognised the potential for a thrilling adventure story. MacLean left without any agreement to write even an outline and the Chapmans presumed the lunch had been a useless exercise.

But a few weeks later Chapman’s phone rang and MacLean’s strong accent asked, “So, do you want to come and collect that thing?” Chapman dashed to MacLean’s tenement in Rutherglen and was handed a bundle casually wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. MacLean simply commented, “Ach, any idiot can write a book.”

As Chapman hurried home he held the manuscript of ‘HMS Ulysses’ which told of the Russian convoys and the crew being pushed to breaking point. Chapman read the book overnight and immediately knew he had a best seller in his hands. It was published in 1955 and sold a quarter of a million copies in six months.

His career prospered and Chapman guided MacLean’s career both as publisher and agent until the author’s death in 1987.

The success of ‘HMS Ulysses’ certainly ensured that Chapman could move to London in 1955 and rose to become, in 1968, joint managing director and chairman from 1981-89. He was managing director when Rupert Murdoch (chairman of News UK, of which HarperCollins is now a subsidiary) bought 41.7% of Collins. Chapman resigned in 1989, setting up Chapman Publishers with his wife Marjory which was later bought by Orion.

Alistair MacLean never wanted to live the celebrity-author lifestyle and it took all Chapman’s tact and persuasion to get him to attend the 1961 royal film premiere of ‘The Guns of Navarone’, when he was presented to the Queen. Similarly, in 1969 for the London premiere of ‘Where Eagles Dare’, Chapman eventually got MacLean not only to attend the film but organised a private table at the after-premiere banquet at the Savoy at which he and MacLean sat amongst the stars, Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood.

Richard Burton and Alistair MacLean became close friends. Richard Burton and Alistair MacLean are both buried in the same cemetery in Céligny (Switzerland).

First publication: 11 December 2019
Second (updated) publication: 07 August 2025

Alistair MacLean’s ‘San Andreas’ to become mini-series?

Laurence Bowen’s London-based Dancing Ledge Productions (dead link, company is now defunct) has entered into a deal with publisher HarperCollins to adapt some, most, or all novels of Alistair MacLean as mini-series to be shown on television. Each novel-to-television project will be structured as a four-part or six-part mini-series.

HarperCollins owns the rights to bestselling author MacLean’s novels which also include 'The Guns Of Navarone', 'Ice Station Zebra', and 'Where Eagles Dare'. Each of those was previously turned into a feature movie. His books have sold over 150 million copies since 1955.

SanAndreas
The first project under the pact is ‘San Andreas’, a thriller set on board a torpedoed WWII hospital ship. San Andreas sees the ailing ship attempt to make its way back across the North Atlantic to Scotland while a saboteur picks off members of the crew.

Bowen says, “I doubt there are many bookshelves in the UK that don’t have at least one Alistair MacLean thriller, so the opportunity to work with HarperCollins to adapt a number of them for screen is incredibly exciting. If you then add a writer with the talent of Tony Marchant to the mix, we have a wonderful marriage of nail-biting action and emotional complexity.”

Dancing Ledge was formed in June 2016 with backing from Fremantle Media (taking a 25% share) and a development deal with Martin Freeman. It is currently developing projects for several broadcasting channels and is working with Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Dr Who), Dan Sefton (Mr Selfridge), Guy Hibbert (Eye In The Sky) and Simon Block (Home Fires).

Dead
Now, years later, nothing has been heard of the project anymore. 'San Andreas' is presumably dead in the water.

First publication: 19 July 2017
Second (updated) publication: 30 June 2025

HMS Ulysses vs. The Cruel Sea

When ‘The Cruel Sea’, written by Nicholas Montsarrat (1910-1979), was published in 1951 it had had rave reviews, and was an immediate success. Remember, it was just a few years after the end of the Second World War when that novel was published. But, contrary to the reactions of Montsarrats' novel, one of the first reviews of Alistair MacLean’s debut ‘HMS Ulysses’ (1955) described the book as “the worst insult to the Royal Navy ever published”. That certainly alerted people to the book, and the novel soon topped the bestseller lists. In other reviews, ‘HMS Ulysses’ and ‘The Cruel Sea’ were compared and most reviewers agreed that both novels were equally disturbing in their portraying of the horrors of the battle of the North Atlantic.

What did Alistair MacLean (1922-1987) write to deserve such a scalding review? Well, ‘HMS Ulysses’ is certainly not a glamorous story about heroism but a narrative about unrelenting stress, hardship, exhaustion and extreme weather conditions that took a heavy physical and psychological toll on the crew of HMS Ulysses.

These factors lead to a mutiny on the previous trip of HMS Ulysses and the admiralty, staffed by officers that always remain safely ashore, decided that both ship and crew should be given the one last chance to redeem themselves. They were ordered to escort a Murmansk-bound convoy, and if necessary, to act as bait for the Tirpitz that was at the time holed up in a Norwegian fjord. In MacLean’s book, the enemy is not only the threat of the Germans, but equally so the horrendous conditions in the Arctic.

‘The Cruel Sea’ by Nicholas Monsarrat is also a novel that does not portray the good and the bad as white and black, but both sides of the conflict are painted in shades of grey. The book, like ‘HMS Ulysses’, focuses on the crew of a woefully inadequate corvette the ‘Compass Rose’ on duty in the icy North Atlantic to protect convoys. Monsarrat’s tale also revolves around the hardship the crew must endure continuously simply in order to survive in those harsh conditions. But it also makes abundantly clear the tough decisions those in command of such a vessel must make while carrying out their duties.

So, which one is the better novel? The answer to that question is a strictly personal one, and I would not want to cast doubt on the heroism of these brave sailors. I think these books have so much in common that they should be seen as a dual testament to that intensely cruel period that so many already seem to have forgotten.

First publication: 08 April 2023
Second (updated) publication: 21 June 2025

[Review] Rev. Alistair MacLean: ‘High Country’

Alistair Maclean (1922-1987) was the third son of Reverend Alistair MacLean (1885-1936). While Alistair MacLean became known for this fast-paced thrillers, his father was known for his fire and brimstone sermons. Just 47 of those sermons were collected in ‘High Country’ (1928).

[Rev. MacLean and his family (Alistair MacLean is on the far right)]

A review appeared in ‘The Living Church’ (November 30, 1952):
High Country is a delicate and delightful little book of sermons which tingles with a wholesome Scottish simplicity. The writer strives to imitate the method of our Lord, “who offers His jewels in artistic and delightful settings.” In the series of 47 sermons, dealing with the inner life, we find a beautiful gallery of pictures and a fresh selection of biographical anecdotes.

This book, extremely concrete, offers much to the person who may choose to use it as a manual for meditation. Since the sermons were first written for the author’s “congregation of simple folk”, they enunciate the fundamental truths of Christian inner experience, not in a speculative way, nor in a language about common understanding, but in a manner clear and at once appealing.

The seminarian and young priests learn much about a vigorous style of sermon-structure from this collection. Here is a great well of fresh illustrated material and a method of preaching which can hardly fail to enliven the pulpit.

Unfortunately, the book cannot be recommended for the use of lay-readers and their work for the church. Naturally, the writer cannot escape his Calvinistic attitudes and he makes many references to Scottish literature which will mean very little to Anglican congregations.

But the book may give an insight into the reticent character of Alistair MacLean, because growing up in such an environment cannot but leave its mark on a personality.

Another publication of Reverend Alistair MacLean is 'Hebridean Altars: Some Studies of the Spirit of an Island Race'. The book is described as an 'influential work by the Rev. Alistair Maclean of Daviot, in which the author "gives in beautiful language, translations from the original Gaelic, of prayers and runes which he collected throughout the Hebrides".

First publication: 19 July 2017
Second (updated) publication: 06 June 2025

[Review] Mark Simmons: ‘Alistair MacLean’s War’

When you have grown up, like I have, in the now long forgotten age that managed to do without internet, social media, and mobile phones, you would often pass your spare time reading. Then, you would eagerly scour the thriller-section in your local bookshop, searching for the latest Alistair Maclean.

‘Master Storyteller’ informed the covers of the Fawcett paperbacks the unwary. In those days, that was quite unnecessary. Alistair Maclean was one of the greatest writers of fast-paced thrillers that ever lived, though he himself claimed that he disliked writing.

Alistair MacLean was born in 1922 and too young to enter the Second World war early on. In the end, MacLean’s did see a fair bit of action in the war. However, he never was in mortal danger as most of his protagonists were.

In the spring of 1941 MacLean left his native Scotland to start his naval training. In August 1943 he joined the anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Royalist. Launched in May 1943, it needed extensive sea trails, fitting and refitting because the vessel could enter active service on March 30th, 1944.

Yes, Alistair MacLean took part in one of the most dangerous missions a vessel could be ordered to do: a run through the dark and foreboding Arctic waters, protecting a convoy bound for Murmansk. But after just one such mission, the Royalist was ordered to the Mediterranean. There, from July to September 1944, the vessel took part in several operations, but the end of hostilities loomed. After some additional refitting in Alexandria, the Royalist was sent to the Far East. For Alistair MacLean the war finally ended in March 1946, when he was officially demobilized.

Yes, Alistair MacLean saw a lot of the world, and he proved a good listener. He stored interesting nodules of knowledge in his brain. These could later filter through and become part of his thrillers. The rest, as they say, is history.

As a shy and lonely man, he had but a few friends. In the end, he died in 1987 like he had lived: a small dusty man in a small dusty room.

But what to make of ‘Alistair MacLean’s War’ by Mark Simmons? As MacLean died in 1987, most of the people who knew him are long dead too. Simmons extensively quotes from Jack Webster’s ‘Alistair Maclean: A life’, but the interesting idea is to also use quotes from MacLean’s own thrillers. Also, Simmons uses the war itself as a sort of canvas for the story. Tied together, these threads give the reader a novel insight in what sort of man Alistair MacLean was, what he became, and how the Royal Navy shaped his thrillers.

‘Alistair MacLean’s War’ is a valuable tribute to the life of the man who produced some of the most memorable thrillers ever to be published.

First publication: 18 May, 2025

Shona MacLean: Alistair MacLean’s Niece

Shona MacLean (1966) is one of the five children of Alistair MacLean’s brother Gillespie MacLean and his wife Margaret. Her progress through life was closely followed by her uncle Alistair MacLean and he even encouraged her to become a writer.

While at university, Shona studied in France for a while and Alistair MacLean – not wanting his niece to waste time and effort on menial jobs to earn a bit of money – simply suggested to deposit the then considerable sum of ₤3,000 for her. He told Shona that she could “pay him back when I’m old and decrepit and bankrupt”.

By the time she started working on her first novel, in her early twenties, her uncle had died. She didn’t finish that first effort and only recently returned to writing. Shona MacLean, currently lives in Conon Bridge (Scotland) with her husband, Dr James Vance, the rector at Golspie High School, and their four children.

At the moment Shona MacLean has published a series of historical crime mysteries that feature Alexander Seaton, a disgraced minister turned teacher who is caught up in the political and religious turmoil of Scotland in the early 17th century. Another series feature Damian Seeker, agent of Oliver Cromwell who has declared himself Lord Protector. A standalone, 'Bookseller of Inverness' is set in the 18th Century.

Her first novel is called 'The Redemption of Alexander Seaton' and her publishers have called it “a compelling thriller and brilliant historical novel”. That she has all the historical facts correct is no wonder: Shona MacLean completed a PhD in 17th century history at Aberdeen University.

But you could run into problems if you should want to search for books that bear her name because her publishers have decided to re-brand her books under the name of S.G. MacLean. “The thinking was that my name was too soft and feminine and men wouldn’t buy my books,” she explained. It is however an obvious attempt to emulate the success of Joanne Rowling, better known as J.K. Rowling.

All of this is really unnecessary because the books should speak for themselves. They are simply brilliantly written historical novels. They also show that Shona MacLean is a worthy successor to her uncle.

Books:
2008: The Redemption of Alexander Seaton (Alexander Seaton 1)
2010: A Game of Sorrows (Alexander Seaton 2)
2011: Crucible of Secrets (Alexander Seaton 3)
2013: The Devil's Recruit (Alexander Seaton 4)
2015: The Seeker (Damian Seeker 1)
2016: The Black Friar (Damian Seeker 2)
2018: Destroying Angel (Damian Seeker 3)
2019: The Bear Pit (Damian Seeker 4)
2020: The House of Lamentations (Damian Seeker 5)
2022: The Bookseller of Inverness (stand-alone)
2023: The Winter List (Damian Seeker 6)
2026: The Cromarty Library Circle (stand-alone)

First Publication: 19 July 2017
Second (updated) publication: 09 May 2025