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.
[3] 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).
These books showed his Scottish literary voice at its most characteristic, unhampered by the genre requirements of his fiction.