REVIEW

No other popular author has got such publicity. Writers do benefit if celebrities express interest in their works, but Alistair MacLean may be the only one whose books are being read by characters in films — even beyond Hollywood. Remember what Sharmila Tagore is half-way through on her train journey before being serenaded by Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana?

Then in Israeli film Operation Thunderbolt (1977), Col. Yonatan Netanyahu ( the elder brother of the present Israeli Prime Minister) is reading his Circus as Israeli commandos travel to Idi Amin’s Uganda to free passengers of a hijacked Israeli plane. Somehow, films have a certain bent for this MacLean novel about a German trapeze artist tasked to infiltrate a communist stronghold — a character in British horror film The Comeback (1978) is also shown reading it.

For good reason too, as MacLean, whose 95th birth anniversary is on Thursday, was — and is — among the most well-known and enduring authors of the adventure/thriller genre ever, with a special focus on war, the sea and harsh, unforgiving climates (polar terrain and high, deep seas are particular favourites).

In his almost three-decadelong writing career, Alistair Stuart MacLean (1922-87) wrote a little over two dozen novels, but several became famous as well as highly visible due to their film adaptations — The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare are the best examples.

It was also unique for a British author, for whom English was not the first language.

The third son of Church of Scotland minister, MacLean, who was born in