Alastair Dunnett
{{Short description|Scottish journalist and newspaper editor}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox person
|birth_name = Alastair MacTavish Dunnett
|image =
|image_size =
|caption =
|birth_date = {{birth date|1908|12|26|df=y}}
|birth_place = Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, Scotland
|death_date = {{death date and age|1998|9|2|1908|12|26|df=y}}
|death_place = Edinburgh, Scotland
|nationality = Scottish
|known_for = Journalist and Newspaper editor
|education = Hillhead High School to age 15
|spouse = Dorothy Dunnett {{nee}} Halliday (m. 1946)
|children = Ninian Dunnett
Mungo Dunnett
|footnotes =
}}
Sir Alastair MacTavish Dunnett (26 December 1908 – 2 September 1998) was a Scottish journalist and newspaper editor. He edited The Daily Record newspaper for nine years and The Scotsman newspaper from 1956 to 1972. In 1975 he became chairman of Thomson Scottish Petroleum and was much involved in the establishment of the oil terminal at Flotta in Orkney. From the 1950s to the 1980s he was involved in many Scottish cultural activities including being governor of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre (1958–1984). He was awarded an honorary degree of LLD by the University of Strathclyde in 1978{{cite book|title=University of Strathclyde Calendar 2006-07 |page=287 |url=http://www.mis.strath.ac.uk/Secretariat/Publications/general/publications/Part1.pdf |access-date=13 March 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070810234800/http://www.mis.strath.ac.uk/Secretariat/Publications/general/publications/Part1.pdf |archive-date=10 August 2007 }} and was knighted on 4 July 1995.{{cite news|work=The London Gazette | date=12 January 1996 | title= Honours and awards: Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood|url= https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/54287/page/571}}
He published a book of short stories (Heard tell, 1947), a description of a kayaking voyage round the coast of Scotland (Quest by canoe, 1950, republished in 1969 as It's too late in the year and in 1996 as The canoe boys), several books on Scottish topics and an autobiography (Among friends, 1984).
Dunnett married Dorothy Halliday on 17 September 1946; as Dorothy Dunnett she was a celebrated artist and historical novelist, author of the Lymond Chronicles and The House of Niccolo. They had two sons, Ninian and Mungo.
Bibliography
- {{Cite book | last=as Sinclair| first=Duncan| title=Treasure at Sonnach | publisher= Nelson | location=Edinburgh| year=1935}}{{cite web|url=http://www.dorothydunnett.co.uk/dubiblioother.htm|title=Dorothy Dunnett – Bibliography – Related Items|website=dorothydunnett.co.uk|access-date=3 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006205330/http://www.dorothydunnett.co.uk/dubiblioother.htm|archive-date=6 October 2018|url-status=dead}}
- {{Cite book | last=Dunnett | first=Alastair | title=Heard Tell | publisher= Albyn Press | location=Edinburgh| year=1947}}
- {{Cite book | last=Dunnett | first=Alastair | title=Quest by canoe: Glasgow to Skye | publisher= G. Bell| location = London| year=1950}}
- {{Cite book | last=Dunnett | first=Alastair | title= Land of Scotch being an account of the topography and history of Scotland with some mention of the products of that country | publisher= A. Brown & sons for the Scotch Whisky Association| location = Edinburgh| year=1953}}
- Republished as: {{cite book | last = Dunnett | first=Alastair | title=It's too late in the year, etc | publisher = Cedric Chivers | location = Bath | series = Portway reprints | year=1969}}
- Republished as: {{cite book | last=Dunnett | first=Alastair | title=The Canoe Boys: from the Clyde past the Cuillins | publisher= Neil Wilson | location=Glasgow | year=1995 | isbn= 1-897784-42-2}}
- {{Cite book | last=Dunnett | first=Alastair | title=The Donaldson Line: a century of shipping, 1854-1954 | publisher= Jackson | location=Glasgow | year=1960}}
- {{Cite book | editor-last=Dunnett | editor-first=Alastair| title=Alistair MacLean introduces Scotland | publisher=Deutsch | location=London | year=1972 | isbn=0-233-96349-9}}
- {{Cite book | last=Dunnett | first=Alastair | title=No thanks to the Duke | publisher= Cape | location=London | year=1978 | isbn=0-224-01630-X}}
- {{Cite book | last=Dunnett | first=Alastair | title=Among friends: an autobiography | publisher= Century books |location=London | year=1984 | isbn=0-7126-0932-6}}
- {{Cite book | last=Dunnett | first=Dorothy|authorlink=Dorothy Dunnett|author2=Alastair Dunnett| title=The Scottish Highlands | publisher= Mainstream |location=Edinburgh | year=1988 | isbn=1-85158-149-9}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{Cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | title=Alastair Dunnett | last=Linklater | first=Magnus | url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/70893 | date=May 2005 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/70893 }}
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{{Succession box| before=John Buchanan | title=Editor of The Scotsman | years=1956–1972 | after=Eric MacKay }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunnett, Alastair}}
Category:Scottish newspaper editors
Category:People from Inverclyde
Category:20th-century Scottish businesspeople
Category:Scottish short story writers
Category:Scottish travel writers
Category:20th-century Scottish autobiographers
Category:People educated at Hillhead High School
Category:20th-century British historians
Category:20th-century British short story writers
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