Story By John Buchan
author-avatar

John Buchan

bc
A Lodge in the Wilderness
Updated at May 3, 2023, 19:19
First published in 1906, "A Lodge in the Wilderness" is a political novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. The novel relates an imagined conference arranged by a multi-millionaire, Francis Carey, to discuss Empire. The guests are contemporary figures from the upper and professional classes, nine men and nine women who have in common superb articulateness, wide experience, and an interest in understanding how Empire might be a positive influence. Buchan uses the opportunity to set out a variety of views on political and social issues, and to play Devil’s Advocate.
like
bc
Huntingtower
Updated at Apr 5, 2023, 20:39
Huntingtower is a novel written by John Buchan, first published in 1922. The novel is set in Scotland and follows the adventures of three young men who become involved in a plot to rescue a Russian nobleman from his Bolshevik captors.The main character, Dickson McCunn, is a retired Glasgow grocer who decides to spend his retirement years traveling around Scotland. During one of his journeys, he stumbles upon a group of Russian revolutionaries who are attempting to kidnap a Russian nobleman, Prince Michael, who has been imprisoned in Scotland. McCunn, along with two other young men, goes on a mission to rescue Prince Michael and thwart the revolutionaries' plans.The novel is known for its vivid descriptions of the Scottish countryside and its use of Scottish dialect. It is also notable for its portrayal of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath, as well as its exploration of themes such as loyalty, adventure, and honor."Huntingtower" is the first book in Buchan's "Dickson McCunn" series, which also includes "Castle Gay" and "The House of the Four Winds." Buchan is also known for his famous spy thriller, "The Thirty-Nine Steps."John Buchan (1875-1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and politician, best known for his thrillers and adventure novels. He was born in Perth, Scotland, and later studied at Oxford University. After working in various fields, including law and journalism, Buchan began writing fiction in the early 20th century.Buchan's most famous work is the novel "The Thirty-Nine Steps" which was published in 1915 and has been adapted into numerous films, plays, and television series. The novel is a classic thriller, featuring espionage, conspiracies, and a manhunt across the Scottish countryside. Buchan wrote many other novels in a similar vein, including "Greenmantle" "Mr Standfast" and "The Three Hostages."In addition to his writing, Buchan had a distinguished career in public service. He served as a member of Parliament, a government minister, and the Governor-General of Canada. He was also a noted historian, with books on Scottish history and biographies of figures such as Sir Walter Scott and Oliver Cromwell.Buchan was knighted in 1935 and died in 1940. His legacy includes not only his popular thrillers, but also his contributions to British politics and scholarship.
like
bc
The Thirty-Nine Steps
Updated at Jan 19, 2022, 15:22
The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It first appeared as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in August and September 1915 before being published in book form in October that year by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations.The novel is set during May and June 1914; Europe is close to war and spies are everywhere. Richard Hannay has just returned to London from Rhodesia in order to begin a new life, when a freelance spy called Franklin P. Scudder calls on him to ask for help. Scudder reveals to Hannay that he has uncovered a German plot to murder the Greek Premier and steal British plans for the outbreak of war.Scudder claims to be following a ring of German spies called the Black Stone. John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (1875–1940) was a Scottish novelist and historian.
like
bc
A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys
Updated at Jan 19, 2022, 15:16
A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys by John Buchan.I have never yet seen an adequate definition of Romance, and I am not going to attempt one. But I take it that it means in the widest sense that which affects the mind with a sense of wonder—the surprises of life, fights against odds, weak things confounding strong, beauty and courage flowering in unlikely places. In this book we are concerned with only a little plot of a great province, the efforts of men to cover a certain space within a certain limited time under an urgent compulsion, which strains to the uttermost body and spirit.Why is there such an eternal fascination about tales of hurried journeys? In the great romances of literature they provide many of the chief dramatic moments, and, since the theme is common to Homer and the penny reciter, it must appeal to a very ancient instinct in human nature.
like
bc
The House of the Four Winds
Updated at Jan 19, 2022, 14:46
"The House of the Four Winds" is a novel of adventure by John Buchan, first published in 1935. It is a Ruritanian romance, and the last of his three Dickson McCunn books.The novel is set in the fictional Central European country of Evallonia in the early 1930s. It concerns the involvement of some Scottish visitors in the overthrow of a corrupt republic and the restoration of the monarchy. Scottish grocer Dickson McCunn features in his most exciting role. Gorbals Die-hards, Jaikie and his pals, are now dabbling in politics. On his trek across Europe, Jaikie is warned to avoid Evallonia. It is in danger of being overthrown by the cruel Mastrovin. However Jaikie cannot resist taking a look and ends up being kidnapped twice. Moreover, he is not the only one needing to be rescued, and Evallonia’s fate hangs in the balance until Dickson McCunn appears on the scene.It is a sequel to "Huntingtower" and "Castle Gay", in which some Evallonians visited Scotland on a secret mission two years before the start of this novel.
like
bc
Huntingtower
Updated at Jan 19, 2022, 14:45
"Huntingtower" is modern fairy-tale and a gripping adventure story by John Buchan, first published in 1922. It is the third of his three Dickson McCunn books.If you only ever read one John Buchan book, it should be "Huntingtower", which is a perfect introduction to Buchan's body of work: it's not too far out-there in terms of being a conventional story, but it also positively seethes with philosophical themes, and the trademark Buchan wit and joie-de-vivre."Huntingtower" tells the story of Dickson McCunn, a solid, respectable Edinburgh grocer who does duty on a Sunday as an elder down at the Guthrie Memorial Kirk. Mr McCunn is a businessman and a Scot, but he is also a born romantic. He loves the novels of Sir Walter Scott particularly and has spent his whole life dreaming, in a gentle sort of way, of finding Romance and having some brilliant, thrilling role to play on the stage of the world.When Dickson retires from the grocery business and the good Mrs McCunn goes on holiday, he finally gets his chance to walk off in search of adventure and, supplied with a copy of "The Compleat Angler", sets off across Scotland. His idyll is disturbed when he meets John Heritage, a Modern Poet, finding himself in the thick of a plot involving the kidnapping of a Russian princess, who is held prisoner in the rambling mansion, Huntingtower...In "Huntingtower", Buchan introduces some of his best-loved characters and paints a remarkable picture of a man rejuvenated by joining much younger comrades in a fight against tyranny and fear.
like
bc
The Three Hostages
Updated at Jan 17, 2022, 01:42
John Buchan is best known as being the creator of Richard Hannay in "The Thirty-Nine Steps". "The Three Hostages", first published in 1924, is his fourth of the 5-book series of the Richard Hannay novels.After distinguished service in the First World War, Richard Hannay settles into peaceful domesticity with his wife Mary and their young son. However, news comes to him of three kidnappings. With no more than a few tantalisingly cryptic lines of verse as clues, he is soon on the trail of Dominick Medina - a charismatic polymath but a man 'utterly and consumedly wicked'. As Hannay uncovers an international plot to twist innocent minds through hypnotism and blackmail, it appears that he has met his match in one of Buchan's most memorable villains.
like
bc
The Island of Sheep
Updated at Jan 17, 2022, 01:40
First published in 1936, "The Island of Sheep" (or "The Man from the Norlands" as it is known in the United States) is the fifth and final of the series of Richard Hannay ‘spy’ novels by John Buchan.The action occurs twelve years later on from the last novel, when Hannay, now in his fifties, is called by an old oath to protect the son of a man he once knew, who is also heir to the secret of a great treasure. He obtains help from Sandy Arbuthnot, now Lord Clanroyden, and Lombard. The action takes place in England, Scotland and on the Island of Sheep.
like
bc
The Island of Sheep
Updated at Jun 23, 2021, 01:02
Hannay is called by an old oath to protect the son of a man he once knew, who is also heir to the secret of a great treasure. He obtains help from Sandy Arbuthnot, now Lord Clanroyden, and Lombard.
like
bc
A Lodge in the Wilderness
Updated at Jun 3, 2021, 01:17
An imaginary conference is arranged by a multi-millionaire, Francis Carey, at a lodge, Musuru, located on the East Kenyan Plateau some 9000 feet above sea level, to discuss Empire. The conference is made up of nine men and nine women, taken from the upper and professional classes.
like
bc
The 39 Steps
Updated at Jun 2, 2021, 02:17
Europe is close to war and spies are everywhere. Richard Hannay the protagonist and narrator, an expatriate Scot, returns to his new home, a flat in London, after a long stay in Rhodesia, in order to begin a new life. One night he is buttonholed by a stranger, a well-travelled American, who claims to be in fear for his life. The man appears to know of an anarchist plot to destabilise Europe, beginning with a plan to assassinate the Greek Premier, Karolides, during his forthcoming visit to London.
like
bc
John Macnab
Updated at Jun 1, 2021, 23:23
Three successful but bored friends in their mid-forties decide to turn to poaching. They are Sir Edward Leithen, lawyer, Tory Member of Parliament (MP), and ex-Attorney General; John Palliser-Yeates, banker and sportsman; and Charles, Earl of Lamancha, former adventurer and present Tory Cabinet Minister. Under the collective name of John Macnab, they set up in the Highland home of Sir Archie Roylance, a disabled war hero who wishes to be a Conservative MP.
like
bc
The House of the Four Winds
Updated at Jun 1, 2021, 02:44
Set in the fictional Central European country of Evallonia the novel follows Scottish visitors in the overthrow of a corrupt republic and the restoration of the monarchy. It is a sequel to Castle Gay, in which some Evallonians visited Scotland on a secret mission two years before the start of this novel.
like
bc
The Three Hostages
Updated at Jun 1, 2021, 02:32
Hannay is married to Mary and living peacefully in the Cotswolds, when he receives a request to help solve the mysterious kidnapping of the children of three prominent people. Given nothing to go on but a few mysterious clues, Hannay, assisted by friends like Sandy Arbuthnot, must track down the dastardly villains behind the plot before it's too late...
like
bc
The Half-Hearted
Updated at May 27, 2021, 02:11
Social expectations, passion and romance are overpowering cowardly Lewis Haystoun in his attraction to Alice Wishart, a guest at a Scottish country house party hosted by Lady Manorwater.
like
bc
The Thirty-Nine Steps
Updated at Jan 6, 2021, 23:14
The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It first appeared as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in August and September 1915 before being published in book form in October that year by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. It is the first of the five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations. The novel formed the basis for a number of successful adaptations, including several film versions and a long-running stage play. In 2003, the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novels." John Buchan, (26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career, Buchan simultaneously began his writing career and his political and diplomatic careers, serving as a private secretary to the administrator of various colonies in southern Africa. He eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort during World War I. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1927, but he spent most of his time on his writing career, notably writing The Thirty-Nine Steps and other adventure fiction. In 1935, King George V, on the advice of Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, appointed Buchan to replace the Earl of Bessborough as Governor General of Canada, for which purpose Buchan was raised to the peerage. He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan was enthusiastic about literacy and the development of Canadian culture, and he received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom.  
like
bc
The Path of the King
Updated at Dec 29, 2020, 20:05
The Path of the King by John Buchan. This collection of fourteen short stories, The Path of the King offers a tapestry of historical episodes, from the Vikings through centuries of Norman and French, Flemish, English, Scottish, and American social, economic, and political life. Famous events such as the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, the adventures of Daniel Boone, and much else provide the background for the men and women who successively have the blood of kingliness in them, however diluted. The subtly linked individual stories are used to suggest that kingliness may be dormant or fitful over several generations but will eventually reappear in someone, like Abraham Lincoln.
like
bc
The Power House
Updated at Dec 22, 2020, 02:08
The Power House by John Buchan is a novel by John Buchan, a thriller set in London, England. When his friend Charles Pitt-Heron vanishes mysteriously, Sir Edward Leithen is at first only mildly concerned. But a series of strange events that follow Pitt-Heron's disappearance convince Leithen that he is dealing with a sinister secret society. Their codename is 'The Power-House'. The authorities are unable to act without evidence. As he gets deeper involved with the underworld, Leithen finds himself facing the enemy alone and in terrible danger.
like
bc
Huntingtower
Updated at Dec 22, 2020, 02:07
Huntingtower by John Buchan. In Huntingtower there is a retired Glasgow grocer who, starting out for a walking tour with a knapsack and a poetry book, finds himself, within twenty-four hours, up to the neck in one of the wildest plots of adventure it ever entered the heart of man to conceive. There is a beautiful Russian princess abducted by Bolsheviki and immured in the lonely castle by the sea; there are hidden jewels, a villainous innkeeper, with a gang of 'tinklers' keeping watch over the princess until the archvillain arrives in a Danish brig to carry off his helpless victim. How these wicked ones are outmanoeuvred and disposed of by the strategy of Dougal, the captain of a little company of Glasgow street-boys, the 'Gombal Diehards,' with the aid of our retired grocer and a romantic poet, picked up on the march — such is the staple of this fascinating tale of humor and adventure. Dougal is a boy of grit and strategy with no English peer, his nearest kin in fiction being Huck Finn; and the spirited old peasant, Mrs. Morran, will live with the best of Barrie.
like
bc
Mr Standfast
Updated at Dec 17, 2020, 23:25
Mr Standfast by John Buchan. Mr Standfast is the third of five Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan. Set in the later years of World War I, Brigadier-General Hannay is recalled from active service on the Western Front to undertake a secret mission hunting for a dangerous German agent at large in Britain. He is forced to work undercover disguised as a pacifist, roaming the country incognito to investigate the deadly spy and his agents.
like
bc
Greenmantle
Updated at Dec 16, 2020, 22:55
Greenmantle by John Buchan. Richard Hannay, hero of The Thirty-Nine Steps, travels across war-torn Europe in search of a German plot and an Islamic Messiah. He is joined by three more of Buchan's heroes: Peter Pienaar, the old Boer Scout; John S. Blenkiron, the American determined to fight the Kaiser; and Sandy Arbuthnot, Greenmantle himself, modelled on Lawrence of Arabia. The intrepid four move in disguise through Germany to Constantinople and the Russian border toface their enemies: the grotesque Stumm and the evil beauty of Hilda von Einem.
like
bc
The Thirty Nine Steps
Updated at Dec 16, 2020, 22:50
The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan is an adventure novel, It first appeared as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in August and September 1915 before being published in book form in October that year by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations. The novel formed the basis for a number of film adaptations: Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 version; a 1959 colour remake; a 1978 version; and a 2008 version for British television.  
like
bc
John Macnab (Illustrated)
Updated at Apr 10, 2020, 09:24
In 1925, John Buchan published his second most famous novel, John Macnab. Three powerful men suffering from boredom concoct a plan to cure it. They notify three Scottish landowners that they intend to poach from each two stags and a salmon in a given time. They sign collectively as ‘John Macnab’ and await the responses. Alas, boredom soon turns into panic when the unsuspecting men land themselves in hot water. John Macnab is a light interlude within the Leithen Stories series - an evocative look at the hunting, shooting and fishing lifestyle in Highland Scotland. *Includes handcrafted original images.
like
bc
Les Trente-neuf Marches
Updated at Apr 10, 2020, 08:16
Voici le livre dont a été tiré le célèbre film d"Alfred Hitchcock: Richard Hannay, de retour d"Afrique du sud, s"ennuie dans son pays, l"Angleterre, et pense à repartir lorsqu"un locataire de son immeuble, Franklin P. Scudder, l"en dissuade en lui offrant un travail digne de Sherlock Holmes, qui lui fera vite oublier son désir de réembarquer pour l"Afrique. Notre apprenti détective se retrouve en possession d"un carnet contenant une énigme que lui a laissé Scudder, qui a été assassiné entre temps. Que sont donc ces 39 marches?...
like
bc
Le Prophéte au Manteau Vert
Updated at Apr 10, 2020, 08:16
Dans l'Angleterre en guerre, un officier, Dick Hannay, en convalescence après une blessure, se voit confier une mission secrète de la plus haute importance: trouver ce qui se trame en Turquie, et qui pourrait changer la face de la guerre. Aidé d'un américain flegmatique, Blenkiron, d'un de ses amis, Dick, et d'un vieux casseur Australien, ils doivent, chacun de leur côté, essayer de gagner la Turquie. Dick Hannay, quant à lui, se jette dans la gueule du loup en pénétrant directement en Allemagne...
like
bc
The Thirty Nine Steps (Illustrated)
Updated at Mar 19, 2020, 05:46
The Thirty Nine Steps, John Buchan’s groundbreaking espionage thriller featuring spy Richard Hannay, has been called the first great espionage novel. It has been embraced by each new generation and shows no sign of losing popularity. Richard Hannay arrives in London on the eve of World War I, where he meets an American agent seeking help in stopping a political assassination. Before long, Hannay finds himself in possession of a little black book that holds the key to the conspiracy — and on the run from both the police and members of a mysterious organization that will stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden. The book has formed the basis for a number of film adaptations, notably: Alfred Hitchcock"s 1935 version; a 1959 color remake; a 1978 version which is perhaps most faithful to the novel; and a 2008 version for British television.
like
bc
The Thirty Nine Steps
Updated at Mar 19, 2020, 05:31
Richard Hannay arrives in London on the eve of World War I, where he meets an American agent seeking help in stopping a political assassination. Before long, Hannay finds himself in possession of a little black book that holds the key to the conspiracy — and on the run from both the police and members of a mysterious organization that will stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden. John Buchan"s The Thirty Nine Steps has been called the first great espionage novel. It has been embraced by each new generation and shows no sign of losing popularity.
like
bc
The Thirty-Nine Steps
Updated at Mar 19, 2020, 05:31
I returned from the City about three o’clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life. I had been three months in the Old Country, and was fed up with it. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have been feeling like that I should have laughed at him; but there was the fact. The weather made me liverish, the talk of the ordinary Englishman made me sick. I couldn’t get enough exercise, and the amusements of London seemed as flat as soda-water that has been standing in the sun. “Richard Hannay,” I kept telling myself, “you have got into the wrong ditch, my friend, and you had better climb out.” It made me bite my lips to think of the plans I had been building up those last years in Buluwayo. I had got my pile—not one of the big ones, but good enough for me; and I had figured out all kinds of ways of enjoying myself. My father had brought me out from Scotland at the age of six, and I had never been home since; so England was a sort of Arabian Nights to me, and I counted on stopping there for the rest of my days.
like
bc
The Richard Hannay Collection: The Thirty Nine Steps, Greenmantle and Mr Standfast
Updated at Mar 19, 2020, 05:31
Major General Sir Richard Hannay is a fictional secret agent created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and made further popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps. Buchan’s resourceful, German-speaking spy is partly based on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, an espionage operative during the Second Boer War. The Richard Hannay Collection – The 39 Steps, Greenmantle and Mr Standfast presents the first and best three Richard Hannay adventures: The Thirty Nine Steps Hannay arrives in London on the eve of World War I, where he meets an American agent seeking help in stopping a political assassination. Before long, Hannay finds himself in possession of a little black book that holds the key to the conspiracy — and on the run from both the police and members of a mysterious organization that will stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden. Greenmantle Hannay is called in to investigate rumors of an uprising in the Muslim world, and undertakes a perilous journey through enemy territory to meet his friend Sandy in Constantinople. Once there, he and his friends must thwart the Germans" plans to use religion to help them win the war, climaxing at the battle of Erzurum. Mr Standfast Recalled from duty on the Western Front by spymaster Sir Walter Bullivant, Hannay goes undercover as a pacifist, working to outwit a dangerous German spy and his agents. Guided by his contact—and love interest—Mary Lamington, Hannay tracks his enemy from London to Glasgow to the Scottish Highlands, eventually confronting him in a dramatic climax above the battlefields of Europe. The title refers to a character in John Bunyan"s Pilgrim"s Progress, to which there are many other references in the novel; Hannay uses a copy of Pilgrim"s Progress to decipher coded messages from his contacts, and letters from his friend Peter Pienaar. This digital edition of The Richard Hannay Collection – The 39 Steps, Greenmantle and Mr Standfast includes an image gallery.
like