Allan Campbell McLean
Allan Campbell McLean (1922– 1989) was a British writer and political activist.
Biography
He originally came from Lancashire, but he lived in Scotland for many years.
After World War Two he wrote about his experiences of time spent in a military prison in his novel The Glass House, and then turned his attention wholly to writing.
He is the writer of a number of the children's novels: The Hill of the Red Fox (a contemporary spy story set in Skye), Ribbon of Fire (also set in Skye around the time of the Highland Clearances), Master of Morgana, The Year of the Stranger, The Man of the House (known as Storm over Skye in the US), and A Sound of Trumpets. Some of his books have been translated into German.
He was also involved in the Scottish Labour Party for several years, serving on the Scottish executive, and was the Labour candidate in Inverness at the 1964 and 1966 general elections. He wrote a column for the short-lived publication 7 Days in the late 1970s, where he was vocal in his opposition to devolution, and support for prison reform, particularly opposition to the notorious "cage" at HM Prison Inverness.
References
- Obituary, by Brian Wilson, The Guardian, 1989