Allan Campbell McLean (18 November 1922 – 27 October 1989)Brian Wilson, 'Skye dignity and socialism', ''The Guardian'', 2 November 1989. was a British writer and political activist.

Biography

McLean was born on

Walney Island Walney Island, also known as the Isle of Walney, is an island off the west coast of England, at the western end of Morecambe Bay in the Irish Sea. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is part of Barrow-in-Furness, sepa ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

, then in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, and educated at Barrow-in-Furness Technical School. His father, a sheet-metal worker on the Clyde who had moved south to find work, was latterly a foreman at the

Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, England that built warships, civilian ships, submarines and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Construction Works of Vicke ...

shipyards in Barrow. McLean served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

in the Mediterranean and North Africa during World War Two, later writing about his experiences of time spent in a military prison in his 1968 novel ''The Glasshouse''. After the war he moved with his wife Mog to the

Isle of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of ...

and turned his hand to writing. In addition to his published novels he also earned a living as a journalist, and in the 1970s wrote a column for the short-lived publication ''7 Days'', where he was vocal in his opposition to

Scottish devolution Scottish devolution is the process of the UK Parliament granting powers (excluding powers over reserved matters) to the devolved Scottish Parliament. Prior to the advent of devolution, some had argued for a Scottish Parliament within the United ...

and support for prison reform, agitating in particular for the closure of the notorious "cage" at HM Prison Inverness. McLean was also involved in the Labour Party for several years, and was appointed chairman of the Scottish party executive committee in 1974. It was during his chairmanship that the committee voted by six votes to five against endorsing any of the Wilson Government's proposals for legislative devolution as featured in its White Paper on the subject, thereby provoking a "furious reaction... from Scots and English party members alike."Frances Wood, 'Scottish Labour in Government and Opposition, 1964–79', in Ian Donnachie, Christopher Harvie and Ian S. Wood (eds.), ''Forward! Labour Politics in Scotland, 1888–1988'' (Edinburgh: Polygon, 1989), p. 117. He further courted controversy when he resigned from Labour's Scottish working party on crofting rights in 1976, after the Government rejected its proposal that crofting land be fully nationalised. Although McLean never seriously harboured parliamentary ambitions, he had previously been the Labour candidate for

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

at the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

and 1966 general elections. He was also chairman of the Inverness

constituency Labour Party A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituencies. In Sc ...

during the 1970s.

Works

McLean was the writer of a number of children's novels: ''The Hill of the Red Fox'' (1955; a contemporary spy story set in

Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some o ...

); ''The Man of the House'' (1956; known as ''Storm over Skye'' in the US); ''Ribbon of Fire'' (1962; also set in Skye around the time of the

Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulted from Scottish Agricultural R ...

); ''Master of Morgana'' (1965); ''The Year of the Stranger'' (1971); and ''A Sound of Trumpets'' (1971). The author

Naomi Mitchison Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, Baroness Mitchison (; 1 November 1897 – 11 January 1999) was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist and poet. Often called a doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote more than 90 books of historical an ...

said of McLean that "Nobody handles Gaelic speech and thought better... and few get going better with anger and action." Some of his books have been translated into German. He received awards for the following works: *''The Islander'' (1962), Niven Award *''The Glasshouse'' (1968), Arts Council Award G. Ross Roy, ''Studies in Scottish Literature'', vol. XIII (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1978), p. 267. ("Allan Campbell McLean's Niven Award-winning novel ''The Islander'' (1962) I have been unable to find; but his Arts Council Award winner ''The Glasshouse'' (1969) 'sic''is a brutal, compulsive study through a young Scottish soldier of army cruelty.")

References

Sources

*Obituary ('Skye dignity and socialism'), by

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop compositio ...

, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 2 November 1989.

External links

Goodreads entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLean, Allan Campbell 1922 births 1989 deaths British writers People from Barrow-in-Furness Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Military personnel from Cumbria Royal Air Force airmen