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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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Portrait of John Le Carré Photo: Peter Peitsch (2008) / www.peitschphoto.com

Sample of authors

Le Carré, John

Born David John Moore Cornwell in Poole, county of Dorset, England, John le Carré grew up in a troubled home. While his father served a prison sentence for fraud, his mother left the family when David was five years old. He did not see her again until he was 21. He grew up at boarding schools and in his father’s home, before he got the opportunity to enter higher education at age 16. He studied la...

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