{{Short description|Scottish author}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}} {{Use British English|date=January 2018}} {{Infobox writer | name = Angus MacVicar | image = | imagesize = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1908|10|28|df=y}} | birth_place = Argyll, Scotland | death_date = {{death date and age|2001|10|31|1908|10|28|df=y}} | death_place = Campbeltown, Scotland | occupation = Author | nationality = Scottish | genre = Crime thrillers, science fiction, memoirs | subject = | movement = | notableworks = }} '''Angus MacVicar''' (28 October 1908, Argyll – 31 October 2001, Campbeltown, Argyll and Bute) was a Scottish author with a wide-ranging output. His greatest successes came in three separate genres: crime thrillers, juvenile science fiction, and autobiography. His early writing was interrupted by wartime service with the Royal Scots Fusiliers, hence most of his fiction appeared in the two decades following World War II.
MacVicar, whose father (also Angus) was a Presbyterian minister in the Church of Scotland (including at Southend from 1910 to 1957),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12134307.angus-macvicar-reluctant-divinity-student-who-found-his-vocation-as-an-author-and-scriptwriter|title = Angus MacVicar Reluctant divinity student who found his vocation as an author and scriptwriter| date=3 November 2001 }}</ref> was born at the manse at Southend, where he lived for most of his life, including at 'Achnamara', the bungalow he had built overlooking Southend Bay following his marriage to Jean.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/angus-macvicar-1-583283|title = John Robertson trolls Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers over Hearts pitch| date=30 July 2018 }}</ref> After attending the University of Glasgow he went on to work for the ''Campbeltown Courier''. The MacVicar family was notably long-lived; the senior, Reverend Angus MacVicar lived to be 92; MacVicar's younger brother, Kenneth, entered the church, serving as Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland, and died aged 96.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-herald/20170606/282252370496765 |title=Kenneth MacVicar |date=6 June 2017}}</ref>
Highlights of MacVicar's many thrillers included the Edgar Wallace-style ''Greybreek'' (1947) and ''The Killings on Kersivay'' (1962), plus some books with golfing backgrounds.
His children's stories combine simple character sketches and exotic adventure with a non-obtrusive Christian morality. The Lost Planet series was created for radio and also popular in book and TV versions (he was also an accomplished screenwriter and playwright).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.625.org.uk/pre1963/pre1963.htm |title=Mentioned (TV 1954) at "British Telefantasy Began in 1963...." Part 1 |access-date=27 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011091807/http://www.625.org.uk/pre1963/pre1963.htm |archive-date=11 October 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In these stories a pacifist theme came through strongly. There are six novels in the Lost Planet series: ''The Lost Planet'' (1953), ''Return to the Lost Planet'' (1954), ''Secret of the Lost Planet'' (1955), ''Red Fire on the Lost Planet'' (1959), ''Peril on the Lost Planet'' (1960) and ''Space Agent from the Lost Planet'' (1961). The playwright Rona Munro (who is also MacVicar's second cousin once removed)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/culture/scots-playwright-rona-munro-has-a-unique-honour/|title = Scots playwright Rona Munro has a unique honour|date = 26 May 2018}}</ref> credited the ''Lost Planet'' books and MacVicar himself as formative influences on her own decision to become a writer.<ref>Doctor Who Magazine Issue 476</ref>
It was the first science fiction series ever translated to Hebrew, and had considerable impact on the development of this genre in Israel.<ref>Review on the website of the Israeli Science Fiction and Fantasy Association [http://www.sf-f.org.il/story?id=94&NewOnly=2&LastView=2008-09-17%2004:28:46] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041129113120/http://www.sf-f.org.il/story?id=94 |date=29 November 2004 }}</ref>
The short unrelated Atom Chasers series was also popular.
In later life MacVicar turned to portraying his life and background as a child of the Manse in several memoirs such as ''Salt in My Porridge'' (1971). These books showed his Scottish literary voice at its most characteristic, unhampered by the genre requirements of his fiction.
MacVicar also presented the BBC television program ''Songs of Praise''.
== See also == * Planets in science fiction (Hesikos) * Fictional planets of the Solar System (Elsewhere in the Solar System)
== References == <references/>
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20040123185611/http://www.theweeweb.co.uk/public/author_profile.php?id=216 Angus MacVicar] *{{isfdb name|id=Angus_MacVicar|name=Angus MacVicar}} *[http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/macvicar_angus Angus MacVicar] at The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Macvicar, Angus}} Category:1908 births Category:2001 deaths Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:20th-century Scottish autobiographers Category:Scottish children's writers Category:Scottish crime fiction writers Category:Scottish radio writers Category:Scottish science fiction writers Category:Scottish television writers Category:People from Campbeltown Category:Royal Scots Fusiliers officers Category:British Army personnel of World War II Category:20th-century Scottish novelists Category:Scottish male novelists Category:20th-century Scottish male writers Category:British male television writers Category:20th-century Scottish screenwriters