It is no coincidence that many of Alistair MacLean's most successful novels were sea stories. In 1941, he was called up after volunteering for the Royal Navy and served as Ordinary Seaman, Able Seaman, and Leading Torpedo Operator. For the majority of his service, he was on HMS Royalist, a modified Dido-class light cruiser, seeing action in the Arctic, and operations against the German battleship Tirpitz . The ship then deployed to the Mediterranean taking part in Operation Dragoon the invasion of the South of France and later in operations against German occupied Greek Islands in the Aegean. After which MacLean and Royalist were deployed to the Indian Ocean and operations against the Japanese in Malaya, Burma, and Sumatra.

His wartime experiences coupled with exceptional literary skill resulted in the runaway success of his first novel HMS Ulysses (1955) followed by The Guns of Navarone (1957) and South by Java Head (1958). These three blockbusters cemented his position as one of the most successful and highly paid authors of the era.

While not a whole life biography, Mark Simmon’s book provides a fascinating insight into Maclean’s war service and subsequent works, which deserve enduring popularity.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Glossary and Acronyms
• Chapter 1 Life before the Navy
• Chapter 2 Joining Up
• Chapter 3 HMS Royalist
• Chapter 4 March–May 1944, Northern Waters
• Chapter 5 July–September 1944, Western Mediterranean
• Chapter 6 Churchill’s Folly
• Chapter 7 September–October 1944, The Aegean
• Chapter 8 Navarone
• Chapter 9 Portsmouth, November 1944
• Chapter 10 Alexandria, December 1944–February 1945
• Chapter 11 March–August 1945, Far East
• Chapter 12 September–November 1945, Singapore
• Chapter 13 Demob
• Chapter 14 The Short Stories 1954
• Chapter 15 The First Three War Novels 1955–1958
• Chapter 16 At the Crossroads 1959–1963
• Chapter 17 The Hotelier 1963–1966
• Chapter 18 Back to the War 1966–1968
• Chapter 19 Switzerland 1969–1972
• Chapter 20 All is Chaos 1973–1977
• Chapter 21 The Last Decade 1978–1987
• Appendix 1: Alistair MacLean’s books and their Second World War Content
• Appendix 2: Short Stories
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Plate Section