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Portrait of Alistair MacLean Photo: Popperfoto via Getty Images (1960)

Sample of authors

MacLean, Alistair

The Scottish author Alistair Stuart MacLean was born in Shettleston, Glasgow, in a Gaelic-speaking family as Alasdair MacGill-Eain (his Gaelic name was anglicised by the British authorities). His father was a Church of Scotland minister. While the author was still a baby, the family moved to a farm near Daviot in the Highlands. After the death of his father, his mother returned to Glasgow with...

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Literary figures

Maud Silver

Gender: Female

The former governess has a small pension, so she works part-time as a private detective – with success. She solves cases in a suite of whodunnits by Patricia Wentworth (pseudonym for Doris Amy Dillon Turnbull). Miss Maud Silver is a determined lady with a sharp tongue who can quickly deal with pompous men. She has mouse-brown hair with a bit of grey, smooth skin, neat facial features, is a s...

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