The Annual (Shameless) Xmas Plug For My Books

It’s coming! My latest book – King of the Action Thrillers – is on the films of Alistair MacLean. Regular readers will know movies based on the thrillers of the Scottish bestselling author are very close to my heart. As it would appear to be to yours. For, as you will be aware, readers of the Blog have responded massively to my behind-the-scenes tales of the making of a few of the MacLean movies.

The new book is based on exclusive access to many rare archives so I am able to tell – for the first time – the real story behind MacLean’s rise to movie prominence. In addition, I’ve tracked down a hitherto unknown screenplay. His books were turned into both big-budget blockbusters like The Guns of Navarone (1961), Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Ice Station Zebra (1968) as well as the more modestly budgeted Puppet on a Chain (1970) and Fear Is the Key (1972) which set new standards for all kinds of chase sequences.

MacLean was an absolute phenomenon in Hollywood terms. Between 1961 and 1979 a total of 13 of his books were turned into movies, an unprecedented hit rate. Another four began in television, and there was one final movie in 1989.  Given he only wrote 28 works of fiction that is some achievement.

This book isn’t published until November next year but is currently available for pre-order on Amazon so there’s no reason why it wouldn’t make a great Xmas present this year.

I’ve diversified somewhat in my activities. Vinegar Syndrome, one of the top DVD re-packagers, has called twice on my services for an audio commentary. So if you want to know what I sound like or you just find the Scottish accent soothing, check out my work on Henry Hathaway western Five Card Stud (1968). Although it starred the fairly macho likes of Robert Mitchum and Dean Martin, I also detected considerable feminist aspects which, it appears, others have overlooked. That’s already out. You can get it direct from Vinegar Syndrome.

Coming soon is my audio commentary on British cult sci fi The Terrornauts (1967), an Amicus production starring Simon Oates, Zena Marshall, Charles Hawtrey and Patricia Hayes and based on a bestseller by Murray Leinster, considered second only to H.G. Wells for his speculative imagination.

I’ve been paid a rather unique compliment by the highly esteemed Cinema Retro magazine. They are putting out a “Special Edition” – in magazine format with dozens of stills and posters – of my Making of The Magnificent Seven book, which covers the original series.

But that’s not out till January. The full version of the book is also available from Amazon at a very reduced price. If you’re a fan of the “making-of” books – as, judging by the views of my behind-the-scenes articles, many of you are – then you may well be interested in The Making of The Guns of Navarone (Revised Edition) and The Making of Lawrence of Arabia. For that matter, there is ample “behind the scenes” material in two other books. The Magnificent 60s examines in detail the  top 100 movies of the decade and could easily be retitled “how the decade was born.” The  Gunslingers of ’69 examines the western in a pivotal year that saw the release of The Wild Bunch, True Grit, Once Upon a Time in the West and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid among others.

My research into The Magnificent Seven spawned two other books. I came to write Coming Back to a Theater Near You, A History of Hollywood Reissues 1914-2014 as a direct result of discovering that the western had flopped on initial U.S. release and only became profitable there after several revivals. Equally, the movie enjoyed an unusual release pattern, going out in a what you’d call these days a rudimentary form of wide release and that led me to In Theaters Everywhere: A History of the Hollywood Wide release 1913-2017.

Since I’ve now written over a dozen books on the movies I’m not going to bore you with them all. You can check me out on Amazon.

I would beg you, however, to pass on to anyone you can think of the information regarding the Alistair MacLean book. It would be great if thanks to pre-orders it could open at No 1 in the Amazon movie chart.