The 39 Steps to writing a perfect thriller by author John Buchan's grandson | Daily Mail Online comments Even now, almost 100 years after it was first published, the story retains a modernity that is little short of astonishing 'The 39 Steps, in its language, its settings, its nods to contemporary technology and its characterisation, belongs firmly to the 20th century,' said John Buchan's grandson, Toby On a late-summer’s day in 1914, a man walks with his small daughter down a rickety flight of wooden steps leading to a private beach from a house on the clifftop. The girl, just turned six, is improving her counting by determinedly calling out the number of each step. ‘Thirty-six, thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-NINE!’ she says in triumph as they step off onto the sand. Thus Alice Buchan gave the title to her father’s, my grandfather’s, new novel, little knowing that it would prove to be one of the most enduring adventure stories ever to be published.

John Buchan wrote The 39 Steps in a few weeks towards the end of 1914, while staying with his wife and children at Broadstairs in Kent, in a house on the cliffs overlooking Stone Bay. (The house is still there; indeed, anyone wishing to re-enact the novel’s finale may rent it as a holiday let.) While there, he became ill with the duodenal problems that plagued him all his life, and which had prevented him from joining the Army, Britain having declared war against Germany on August 4 that year. Two major elements among these facts – the clifftop setting and the coming of war – infuse what has come to be widely regarded as the first modern spy thriller. Buchan posted the manuscript to Blackwood & Sons in Edinburgh, publisher not only of books but of the famous literary magazine that bore its name. ‘It has amused me to write, but whether it will amuse you to read is another matter,’ he wrote. He need not have fretted. Blackwood’s accepted it at once and published it in the magazine, in serial form and pseudonymously, between July and September 1915, and as a book under Buchan’s name in October.

It was an immediate success – and more than that, it has become a classic of its kind. Today, the principal charges levelled against the novel are that it is dated, and that it relies too heavily upon improbable circumstances or coincidences. Yet I would argue that even now, almost 100 years after it was first published, the story retains a modernity that is little short of astonishing. Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, released in 1935, is an extremely well-made comedy thriller that's widely and deservedly admired I am reminded of its place in our collective narrative by a cartoon I clipped from a newspaper a few years ago and pinned to my office wall. It shows a boy of about eight, standing in front of his parents. He is wearing a tweed Norfolk jacket, a tie, breeches, chequered shooting stockings and what are no doubt stout brogues. Eyes closed as in serious thought, he is drawing on a pipe clamped between his teeth, the bowl of which he’s holding in his left hand. In his right, half wedged beneath his arm, he holds a copy of The 39 Steps.

Anxiously, his mother is saying to her husband, ‘Why doesn’t he read Harry Potter, like other kids?’ Why indeed? True, The 39 Steps isn’t read by the young (or old) in anything like the numbers that JK Rowling’s marvellous creation attracts, but it’s still in print nearly 100 years after its first publication; indeed, it has never been out of print, something that isn’t true of the works of, for instance, Jane Austen. John Buchan has quite often been called ‘the last Victorian’, but I have always found this a somewhat lazy description, especially when applied to his writing. He was, of course, a Victorian by birth and upbringing, but he was not stuck in the past. The storyline of The 39 Steps makes free use of the technology of its age: cars and a motorbike, radio and the telephone, a fleeting reference to a semi-automatic pistol and even a monoplane, at a time when all these were rarities – new-fangled, almost certainly dangerous and, to many, arguably morally suspect. Given that Buchan was 40 by the time the novel was published, their inclusion strikes me as remarkably innovative.

It is, unsurprisingly, a novel of its time, its slang sometimes dated, its characters perhaps anachronistic (and sometimes unfairly pilloried), most of its certainties atomised for ever in the cataclysm of the Great War. Nonetheless, it is instructive to read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, first published in 1912, three years before The 39 Steps. The former, fine adventure story though it is, is unquestionably a Victorian novel, owing much, as all ‘lost world’ novels must, to Sir Henry Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (1885). The 39 Steps, in its language, its settings, its nods to contemporary technology and its characterisation, belongs firmly to the 20th century. I’m not going to rehearse the plot and action of the novel here, not least because there’s a good chance that readers will be familiar with it already. They may remember some of the scenes: the hero, Richard Hannay, leaping from the express as it crosses the great iron railway bridge over the Forth, say, or the villain holding up his hand to show the missing finger that confirms him as the enemy.

And what grubby-minded schoolboy didn’t snigger over the scene in which the girl (a ‘topper’, and no mistake), handcuffed to the hero, slowly removes her damp stockings? John Buchan pictured in Native American headdress in 1937 Marvellous stuff – except that none of it is in the novel. These, and many other such scenes, come from Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘tiresomely silly’ film, as my grandmother once described it to me. Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, released in 1935, is not tiresomely silly as a film, of course. Quite the reverse: it’s an extremely well-made comedy thriller that’s widely and deservedly admired. It was the making of Hitchcock, too, for it brought him to the attention of Hollywood; more than that, it had a profound influence, for it established the ‘chase’ or ‘pursuit’ thriller as a favoured film genre. All that said, however, what is true is that Hitchcock’s film bears about as much resemblance to Buchan’s novel as West Side Story does to a late-16th-century performance of Romeo and Juliet.

(I will allow that the book’s ending, as quietly dramatic as it is, is virtually unfilmable.) In short, as a representation of the novel’s subtleties, and especially its remarkable sense of landscape and setting, and its at times almost claustrophobic tension, the film fails signally, even while it triumphs as an entertainment in its own right. It’s an indication of the book’s enduring appeal, however, that to date three feature films and a 90-minute television adaptation have been made of it, the last in 2008 (and a fourth film has been rumoured for this year). All take considerable liberties with the text, and none quite conveys the world that Buchan created, or maintains the tension of hiding and pursuit, largely on foot, that occupies very nearly one half of the novel. Nor has any caught the boredom and stagnation that drive Hannay and cause him to feel an exultant joy in action even as he faces more and greater threats.

As he admits from the start, reflecting on his life in London, ‘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.’ Though often frightened, sometimes desperate and for a time badly injured, Hannay never weakens. Even given everything that is at stake – Britain’s secret naval plans, at risk of capture by German spies – he continues to find the life into which he has been thrust ‘grand’. My grandfather’s characters were frequently based upon (or, more accurately, were amalgams of) people he knew, sometimes very well. Many of them died in the Great War, to his lasting sadness, among them his close friend and business partner Tommy Nelson, to whom The 39 Steps is dedicated.

Buchan's skill lies in making the unlikely not just believable, but eminently reasonable They are easy to laugh at now, these ‘clubland heroes’, stereotyped with clipped military moustaches, inextinguishable briars filled with strong shag, indestructible tweeds and stout footwear, and a habit of direct speech and, sometimes, even more direct action. Yet there is something of Keith Douglas’s poem Aristocrats about them, too: ‘How can I live among this gentle obsolescent breed of heroes, and not weep?’ The world in which my grandfather and his friends had been raised, with its established order and certainties (and not always admirable prejudices, it must be said), vanished forever in the catastrophe that overtook Europe and much of the Middle East between 1914 and 1918. And in the decades that followed their simple code of honour, courage, steadfastness, self-reliance, patriotism and courtesy came to seem outmoded, if not risible.

And what of Richard Hannay, that 37-year-old Scot who, having made his pile – ‘not one of the big ones, but good enough for me’ – as a mining engineer in Rhodesia, has returned to live in England? According to my grandfather, he was partly based on Edmund ‘Tiny’ Ironside (later Field Marshal Lord Ironside), an artillery officer who had fought and been wounded in the Second Boer War and had worked undercover by disguising himself as an Afrikaner in order to spy on the Germans in South-West Africa. (Either his disguise was insufficient or the Germans were cleverer than he had assumed, for it’s said that he was rumbled and had to leg it.) As to the improbabilities, such is the novel’s pace and atmosphere that they go largely unnoticed. Buchan declared that he set out to write a ‘shocker’ in which ‘the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible’, and he did exactly that. Besides, are they any greater than those in, say, Frederick Forsyth or Ian Fleming (both avowedly influenced by Buchan’s spy thrillers)?

Buchan’s skill lies in making the unlikely not just believable, but eminently reasonable. By the time the book was published, the trenches of the Western Front were dominating the public consciousness. The lone figure who stands between a nation’s safety and the machinations of a great power was no longer realistic. Yet it is an attractive, if romantic, idea, and in this lies much of the novel’s power. As for me, I like to picture the slight figure of my grandfather coming down the steps to the beach all those years ago, clutching my aunt Alice’s hand, abstractedly turning over in his mind the plot for a novel which was to change the spy story forever. Finally, there is a postscript to the story of Alice and her resolute counting. When, in the Forties, that area of Broadstairs was redeveloped, the old wooden steps set into the chalk cliff face were torn out and replaced. A literate builder or developer saved a piece of the 39th and sent it to our family (for John Buchan had died in 1940), a measure not only of the book’s fame, but also of the affection in which it is held.

‘The 39 Steps’ by John Buchan, special cloth-bound edition, is published by Michael O’Mara Books, priced at £9.99 The Thirty Nine Steps: John Buchan: 9781452873183: Amazon.com: Books The Thirty Nine Steps Read more Read less Best Books of 2016 Looking for something great to read? Browse our editors' picks for the best books of the year in fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, children's books, and much more. Customers also viewed these available items Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Next Special Offers and Product Promotions Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. A full cast delivers a gripping performance of John Buchan's classic tale of espionage and intrigue. When Richard Hannay discovers a dead body in his apartment, he's dragged into a dark and dangerous world of global politics, secret societies, and undercover agents.

Accused of murder and with the fate of the British fleet resting in his hands, Hannay must elude the police and foreign spies, decode a cryptic notebook, and convince the enigmatic Sir Walter Bullivant to believe his incredible tale. David Robb dazzles as Hannay, delivering a gritty, nuanced performance of a man living a nightmare, and with the addition of dramatic music and a host of pitch-perfect sound effects, this audiobook is highly enjoyable and highly recommended. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review "It is the dimension of the mysterious that makes Buchan's writing so unfailingly compelling." It is the dimension of the mysterious that makes Buchan's writing so unfailingly compelling. (John Keegan, from the introduction) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here , or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . Ignite your imagination with these editor's picks from Kindle books.

See more Product Details Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; Reprint edition (May 15, 2010) Language: English Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces 5.0 out of 5 stars Can be re read indefinitely! ByA customeron August 7, 1997 An effortless adventure classic that spans the void between dime shocker and quality literature. The rapid elaboration of the plot, that is so well known that it has passed many images into popular conciousness, is still satisfying after many reads. Richard Hannay returned to England, after making his fortune in South Africa, is unwillingly ensnared in a tortured plot to assassinate Karolides the Greek premier and so plunge Europe into war. Scudder, an American journalist turned spy has coded information relating to the plot but is murdered in Hannay's luxurious flat before he can pass on the code.

Hannay, with all fingers pointing to him as the murderer escapes by Scottish express and with Scudder's coded notebook .Decamping from the train in the Sottish lowlands ( the Forth Bridge escape from the train was created with the 1935 Hitchcock film adaptation ) he is pursued across hill and dale by the police and the enemy agents intent on seizeing the notebook. In his flight he holes up in a remote wayside inn with a literary inn keeper, who can quote Kipling. It is here that he masters the code and learns Scudder's secrets. From then on it's a race to get to London and notify the authorities. One of the brilliant scenes on the way, concerns Hannay posing as road mender to evade his pursuers. To do this, Hannay explains how you must become one with the environment you're using as a cover; one of Buchans's favourite ploys and one employed in many of his novels. Hannay exchanges pursued for pursuer and tracks the agents to their escape channel and ultimately the title of the book is explained.

Every reading of this splendid and timeless novel reveals further delights that may have been missed before and even well remembered scenes take on a fresh vividness and charm. My praise may seem fulsome but after experiencing 'The Thirty Nine Steps' you too will be won over By Jordan M. Poss on May 14, 2008 Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase John Buchan's novel The Thirty-Nine Steps is the prototype of the modern thriller novel, what he called a "shocker." In it, Buchan introduced Richard Hannay, the prototype of the resourceful, intelligent, and tenacious hero of the modern thriller. And while the story may not be as intricate or exciting as its descendents', The Thirty-Nine Steps still succeeds at what Buchan set out to do--entertain. The novel's story is very straightforward--Hannay, recently returned to "the Old Country" of England from a life spent in Africa, finds himself thoroughly bored with his new life in London.

After an American spy is murdered in his apartment, Hannay finds himself on the run not only from the police, who believe him to be the murderer, but from a mysterious and malevolent organization called "The Black Stone." The Black Stone has a secret it wants to keep hidden, and eliminating Hannay would help them keep their cover. From London into the Scottish countryside, pursued by detectives, sinister Germans in touring cars, and newfangled "aeroplanes," The Thirty-Nine Steps never stops moving, and even at its conclusion one barely has a chance to catch their breath. The story is so gripping I can easily see how it caught Alfred Hitchcock's attention as film material. The novel is fast-moving and short--barely 100 pages. I read this book in a few hours at a slow deskjob. If I have to find fault with any one part of the book, it's that the conclusion--indeed, the very last half-page or so--didn't make perfect sense. I had to read it twice. But that's only a small problem for this otherwise fun and exciting book.

Almost a century of imitators and innovators in the spy and espionage genres--from Ian Fleming to Tom Clancy--owe Buchan a great debt. Buchan paved the way for these later authors with shockers like The Thirty-Nine Steps and its hero, Richard Hannay. Recommended rainy-day reading. 5.0 out of 5 stars A Spymaster Who Writes Spy Novels By William Hare on December 20, 2003 It was not until recently that actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and others learned and revealed the information that John Buchan, author of "The Thirty-nine Steps" as well as the highly successful Greenmantle series, had been the head of the secretive British domestic intelligence agency which parallels the FBI in the United States, MI-5. With that knowledge it is increasingly easier to see how the Scotland-born Buchan was able to write such penetrating spy stories, which contain such a strong tone of believability. "The Thirty-nine Steps" traces the activities of Richard Hannay into the world of master spies.

This gripping first person account details how an innocent was drawn into the grimy world of espionage after an American called Scudder who lived in his Portland Place apartment building contacted him one day, telling him he was about to be assassinated by a group of master spies. When the act is accomplished Hannay becomes a sought after potential victim as the spy group fears what he might know about their enterprise. He is also pursued by police as a murder suspect in Scudder's death. Hannay, a former international mining engineer, tells adventure stories about his foreign experiences and uses common sense resourcefulness to prevent the police from arresting him as the suspected killer of Scudder and the spy masters who want him dead for what he might have learned from his former neighbor Scudder. Buchan, a former mountain climber and a distinct man of action, presents Hannay as a man much like himself, using mental and physical resourcefulness to stay out of harm's path. Scotsman Buchan presents excellent descriptions of chase sequences in the Scottish moors as Hannay hides in and steps through heather and brush, eluding those who chase him. Eventually Hannay is able to solve the case by using logic in the way of Arthur Conan Doyle's presentation of Sherlock Holmes.

Buchan was influenced by Doyle. This influence is particularly notable at the story's fascinating conclusion. The 100 best novels: No 42 - The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (1915) | Books | The Guardian The 100 best novels: No 42 - The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (1915) John Buchan's espionage thriller, with its sparse, contemporary prose, is hard to put down It's all about suspense: Robert Powell in the 1978 film version of The Thirty-Nine Steps. Photograph: Moviestore Collection Ltd Share on Messenger Close When 39-year-old John Buchan , recuperating from a duodenal ulcer, turned to writing (in a matter of weeks) a "shocker" or "dime novel" in the first months of the first world war, he was already the admired author of more than 10 works of fiction and spoken of in literary circles as a name to watch. Indeed, Buchan might quite plausibly have become a great Scots novelist following in the footsteps of Walter Scott and RL Stevenson.

Instead, with ideal timing, he wrote another kind of classic, The Thirty-Nine Steps, an archetypal English spy thriller. Long before the outbreak of war, the English reading public had become gripped by invasion fever. This was a volatile cocktail of jingoism and xenophobia inspired by the Anglo-German naval arms race and stoked by bestsellers such as The Great War in England in 1897 by William Le Queux and the infinitely greater 1903 classic The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers. Buchan, who worked for the British War Propaganda Bureau, was well-versed in this Edwardian genre and the outbreak of war across the Channel became the perfect inspiration for a topical and thrilling tale of acute jeopardy involving British secrets, German spies and the sinister plotting of the Black Stone gang, a conspiracy hellbent on fomenting a vicious global conflict. So far so (fairly) conventional.

Buchan's contribution to this "dime novel" scenario was to create in his protagonist, Richard Hannay, an appealing antihero, both cool and brave, but also "pretty well disgusted with life" who, caught up in a high-octane international drama, has the resource, intelligence and daring to thwart a naked foreign attempt to drag Britain into war. Hannay, who would feature in four more subsequent Buchan thrillers, is a mix of sleuth and action man, a cross between Sherlock Holmes and James Bond. His creator was obviously influenced by Conan Doyle ( No 26 in this series ) and would, in turn, later influence Graham Greene and Ian Fleming. Buchan's other great contribution to this genre, which also owes something to Kidnapped ( No 24 in this series ) was to refine the "man on the run" yarn into a page-turning adventure. He knew exactly what he was doing, describing a "romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the border of the possible". None of this would have amounted to a hill of beans without Buchan's brisk characterisation, loving evocation of Scottish landscape and his switchblade prose.

This is lethal, spare, clean and contemporary. When Hannay returns to his London flat after dinner in clubland, the reader can hardly escape the grip of Buchan's brilliant narration: "I snapped the switch, but there was nobody there. Then I saw something in the far corner which made me drop my cigar and fall into a cold sweat." Now read on. A note on the text The Thirty-Nine Steps, a brilliantly teasing and memorable title, was first published as a serial adventure story in Blackwood's Magazine from August to September 1915, appearing in book form that same October from the Scots publisher, William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh. The book has never been out of print and has inspired many film and television adaptations: Alfred Hitchcock's liberty-taking 1935 version , starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll, a female character absent from the novel; a 1959 colour remake ; a 1978 version , with Robert Powell as Hannay, that sticks rather more faithfully to Buchan's text than Hitchcock; and finally a 2008 British television version , starring Rupert Penry-Jones.

There's also a long-running West End spoof abridgement, indicating the novel's enduring appeal. Three more from John Buchan Greenmantle (1916); Mr Standfast (1919); The Island of Sheep (1936). We Tell Stories - Classics: The 39 Steps The 39 Steps by John Buchan 'My guest was lying sprawled on his back. There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor.' Adventurer Richard Hannay has just returned from South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his London life - until a murder is committed in his flat, just days after the victim had warned him of an assassination plot that could bring Britain to the brink of war. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland, where he must use all his wits to stay one step ahead of the game - and warn the government before it is too late. One of the most popular adventure stories ever written, The Thirty-Nine Steps established John Buchan as the original thriller writer and inspired many other novelists and filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock.

Buy 'The 39 Steps' John Buchan John Buchan was born in Perth. His father was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland; and in 1876 the family moved to Fife where in order to attend the local school the small boy had to walk six miles a day. Later they moved again to the Gorbals in Glasgow and John Buchan went to Hutchesons' Grammar School, Glasgow University (by which time he was already publishing articles in periodicals) and Brasenose College, Oxford. His years at Oxford - 'spent peacefully in an enclave like a monastery' - nevertheless opened up yet more horizons and he published five books and many articles, won several awards including the Newdigate Prize for poetry and gained a First. His career was equally diverse and successful after university and, despite ill-health and continual pain from a duodenal ulcer, he played a prominent part in public life as a barrister and Member of Parliament, in addition to being a writer, soldier and publisher. In 1907 he married Susan Grosvenor, and the marriage was supremely happy. They had one daughter and three sons.

He was created Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield in 1935 and became the fifteenth Governor-General of Canada, a position he held until his death in 1940. 'I don't think I remember anyone,' wrote G. M. Trevelyan to his widow, 'whose death evoked a more enviable outburst of sorrow, love and admiration.' John Buchan's first success as an author came with Prester John in 1910, followed by a series of adventure thrillers, or 'shockers' as he called them, all characterized by their authentically rendered backgrounds, romantic characters, their atmosphere of expectancy and world-wide conspiracies, and the author's own enthusiasm. There are three main heroes: Richard Hannay, whose adventures are collected in The Complete Richard Hannay; Dickson McCunn, the Glaswegian provision merchant with the soul of a romantic, who features in Huntingtower, Castle Gay and The House of the Four Winds; and Sir Edward Leithen, the lawyer who tells the story of John MacNab and Sick Heart River, John Buchan's final novel.

In addition, John Buchan established a reputation as an historical biographer with such works as Montrose, Oliver Cromwell and Augustus. The Thirty-Nine Steps : John Buchan : 9781853260803 The Thirty-Nine Steps By (author) John Buchan , Introduction by Prof. Cedric Watts , Series edited by Dr. Keith Carabine Share US$4.98 US$5.00 You save US$0.02 Free delivery worldwide Add to basket Add to wishlist Description With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. Richard Hannay finds a corpse in his flat, and becomes involved in a plot by spies to precipitate war and subvert British naval power. The resourceful victim of a manhunt, he is pursued by both the police and the ruthless conspirators. The Thirty-Nine Steps is a seminal 'chase' thriller, rapid and vivid. It has been widely influential and frequently dramatised: the film directed by Alfred Hitchcock became a screen classic. This engaging novel also provides insights into the inter-action of patriotism, fear and prejudice.

show more Product details 148.6 x 214.1 x 18.5mm | 358.34g Publication date The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978) - IMDb (South Wales, UK) – See all my reviews I read one contribution here stating quite correctly that this is not a remake of the Hitchcock film, it is an entirely different treatment of the John Buchan book. Where I thoroughly disagree with that reviewer though is in his comment that some parts of the Hitchcock film were 'stodgy', "particularly the crofter scene"! How he could say that is beyond belief. The crofter scene is BRILLIANT! It involves fantastic acting from all 3 in the scene (including a young John Laurie from Dad's Army) who convey amazing thoughts and emotions without dialogue simply with their eyes and small gestures. It is pure cinema and pure genius as is the rest of that film. The Hitchcock version is light years better than this as a film (near perfect actually) but is only loosely based on a few ideas from the Buchan novel. This is more close to the novel but still strays from its source, wrongly so in this case.

The novel is very good but this film drags and is quite poorly directed. It loses most suspense or interest and is very disappointing, I think. 5 of 7 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes JOHN BUCHAN - The 39 Steps JOHN BUCHAN JOHN BUCHAN John Buchan (1875-1940) – First Baron Tweedsmuir of Enfield Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet, and novelist, whose most famous thriller was The Thirty Nine Steps (1915), his 27th book. Alfred Hitchcock’s film version of the story, made in 1935, is ranked as one of the director’s best works. Buchan published nearly 30 novels and seven collections of short stories. “Public life is regarded as the crown of a career, and to young men it is the worthiest ambition. Politics is still the greatest and the most honourable adventure.” John Buchan was born in Perth, Scotland, as the eldest son of Rev. John Buchan and Helen (née Masterton) Buchan.

He studied at the University of Glasgow and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he had an outstanding career, winning the Stanhope Essay Prize in 1897 and the Newdigate Prize in the following year. In 1901 he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and a private secretary to the High Commissioner for South Africa, Lord Milner (1901-03). Prester Johnn (1910) was based on his South African experiences. After returning to London Buchan specialized in tax law and continued to write. In 1906 Buchan started to work for the publisher Thomas Nelson and Sons. He revitalized publication of pocket editions of great literature and virtually edited The Spectator. In 1907 he married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor; they had three sons and one daughter. During World War I Buchan was a war correspondent before joining the army. While ill in bed in 1914 during the first months of the war, he wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps. He served on the Headquarters Staff of the British Army in France as temporary Lieutenant Colonel (1916-17).

When Lloyd George was appointed Prime Minister, Buchan was made Director of Information (1917-18) and then for a short time Director of Intelligence, a brief interlude in Buchan’s career of which he did not much talk. After the war Buchan became a director of the news agency Reuters. From 1927-35 Buchan was Conservative MP for the Scottish universities. He had then a number of important government posts, serving among others as Lord High Commissioner of the Church of Scotland (1933-34). In 1935, after moving to Canada, he was created the first Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield, and served until his death on February 11, 1940, as Governor General of Canada. As a writer Buchan started his career in the late 1890s. Buchan published his first novel, SIR QUIXOTE OF THE MOORS in 1895, while still a student at Brasenose College, Oxford. It was followed by such works as SCHOLAR-GIPSIES (1896) and HISTORY OF BRASENOSE (1898).

At Oxford Buchan wrote five books, and before he was twenty-five he had published eight books. However, he did not devote himself entirely to writing. After a sojourn in South Africa Buchan became a dedicated supporter of Britain’s imperialism, and viewed some of his earlier literary endeavours rather uncomfortable. GREY WEATHER (1899), his first collection of tales and sketches, and THE WATCHER BY THE TRESHOLD (1902), included some tacitly pagan stories. The Thirty-Nine Steps presented spy-catcher Richard Hannay, who was modelled after a young Army officer named Edmund Ironside, later Field-Marshal Lord Ironside of Archangel. Buchan met him during WW I. In the story Hannay had all the qualities of a hero, who could defend the English way of life against foreign thread. The book was adapted into screen by Alfred Hitchcock. Buchan was one of the director’s favourite writers, and he had earlier toyed with the idea of filming Buchan’s GREENMANTLE (1916). Often in Hitchcock’s films an innocent man is chased by the police and the villains.

In one scene Hannay says: “I know what it is to feel lonely and helpless and to have the whole world against me, and those are things that no men or women ought to feel.” The basic outline of the story was thoroughly worked over in the film. At the end Hitchcock parallels handcuffs with a suggestion of marriage. The sequence in which Hannay was first protected and then betrayed by a jealous Highland crofter, have no counterpart in the book at all. The 39 Steps was crucial for Hitchcock’s career – it became an international success and brought him to the attention of the American producer David O. Selznick, with whom he would cooperate in Rebecca (1940) and other films. Richard Hannay appeared again in Greenmantle, where the hero plays a spy and stops the Germans from using an Islamic prophet for their own ends. This time Hannay’s adventures take him through Germany and the Balkans to Constantinople and finally to the Near East front of World War I. Another series character, Sandy Arbuthnot, tackle with Hannay a gang of international criminals in THE THREE HOSTAGES (1924). The books end Hannay’s adventures.

He is now married, has a son, and is happy with his life as lord of Fosse Manor. When the evil plans of Dominic Medina threaten post-war peace, Hannay returns to his old life of action. Lawyer Edward Leithen was the central character in three novels, starting from THE POWER-HOUSE (1916), and continuing in THE DANCING FLOOR (1926), which returned again in the theme of paganism, THE GAP IN THE CURTAIN (1932), and SICK HEART RIVER (1941). Dickson McGunn, a respectable Glasgow grocer, appeared in HUNTINGTOWER (1922), CASTLE GAY (1930), AND THE HOUSE OF THE FOUR WINDS (1935). In WITCH WOOD (1927), a historical novel, Buchan told about stern Scottish Protestants and devil worship. The Gap in the Curtain was a supernatural story, in which the guests at a country house party are enabled by an unconventional scientist to catch a glimpse of an issue of the Times dated a year ahead. Sir Edward finds himself in the middle of an old struggle between faith and doubt.

Among Buchan’s other works were 24-volume NELSON’S HISTORY OF THE WAR (1915-19), biographies of Montrose (1913, 1928), Walter Scott (1932), Oliver Cromwell (1934) and Augustus (1937). Buchan’s autobiography, MEMORY HOLD-THE-DOOR, was published in 1940.”Victor Maskell, the protagonist modelled on Sir Anthony Blunt in John Banville’s the Untouchable (1997), may regard Buchan as ridiculously old-fashioned. But the kind of material which his thrillers were first to bring into focus – the conspiratorial shadow cast by contemporary history, the challenge to integrity and cohesion, the bleak vicissitudes of international power play – continue their complex existence in the genre, as shown in not only Kumari (1955) and Helen All Alone (1961) by Buchan’s son, William, but also in Heart’s Journey in Winter (1995) and High Latitudes: A Romance (1996), by James Buchan, John Buchan’s grandson.

Hitchcock's inventions disappear in BBC's latest version of The 39 Steps | Film | The Guardian The Observer Hitchcock's inventions disappear in BBC's latest version of The 39 Steps Mr Memory and the missing finger disappear as the BBC returns to the original plot of Buchan's classic Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive Saturday 29 November 2008 19.01 EST First published on Saturday 29 November 2008 19.01 EST Close This article is 8 years old The woman behind a new BBC film adaptation of The Thirty-Nine Steps is braced for complaints this Christmas from fans of previous screen portrayals of the classic adventure. Gone from her version is Mr Memory, the music hall performer cruelly shot as he reveals the secret at the core of the story; gone is the gripping scene on the Forth Bridge; gone is the villain's tell-tale missing finger joint (or rather, it is back); and gone, too, is the hero's death-defying struggle on the clockface of Big Ben.

But screenwriter Lizzie Mickery insists she has done the right thing in going back to the original plot of John Buchan's 1915 novel for her inspiration. 'People ask me, "Where are you going to have your memory man scene?",' said Mickery. 'They think they know the story, but they are not talking about the book, they are talking about the films.' The writer and actress reassures viewers that many of the key elements that have made this tale popular for more than 90 years will be there in her adaptation, to be broadcast on BBC1 on Boxing Day with Rupert Penry-Jones, the former star of Spooks, in the lead role of Richard Hannay. 'There is still a steam train chase,' she said. 'And a political hustings, and a scene with a biplane.' The puzzle of the meaning of the '39 steps' is one of the best-known riddles in English fiction, but the actual significance of the title has been lost in a succession of rival screenplays. Each film has put forward a new solution to the mystery.

'In my version Richard Hannay, the hero, has to crack a code,' revealed Mickery, who co-wrote the 2006 television thriller The State Within. 'There is a cypher and he has to find out what it all means while he is running for his life.' Mickery said she knows many people will be surprised by the exclusion of several incidents, including some in Buchan's book, but she said she has refused to be daunted by the powerful legacy of earlier versions. 'To be honest, I didn't let myself think about it. I was immediately caught up in the story and I just set off,' she said. 'I have added fun and romance, I hope, and a bit of oomph.' The best-known film version is Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, released in 1935 with Robert Donat as Hannay, our brave, accidental hero. Set in London and the Highlands, the film is still so well-loved that a recent stage show by Patrick Barlow which pokes gentle fun at it has earned rave reviews in both the West End and, now, on Broadway.

The central plot gimmick, what Hitchcock would call 'the MacGuffin', is the search for vital defence secrets by German spies, the details of which have been memorised by a music hall act. This provided a cinematic showdown for Hitchcock that Mickery finds rather unconvincing. 'If Mr Memory had all that important information in his head, you would think the spies would have done their best to get him out of the country,' she said. Hitchcock's film is set between the wars, but Mickery has taken the story back to the run-up to the First World War: 'Buchan wrote this story quickly as an entertainment when he was ill and he was talking about things that were going on at the time, like German spy rings.' The Scottish author, a future Governor-General of Canada, was recuperating from a duodenal ulcer at a house in Broadstairs where a nearby set of steps, set into the cliff, runs down from the garden to the beach. These are thought to have inspired the title, which in the book refers to the steps down to a quay where the villains' vessel, Ariadne, is waiting to speed them away.

In the 1959 remake, which starred Kenneth More as Hannay, a beautiful spy reveals she is working for British intelligence to expose a group called The Thirty-Nine Steps, an evil gang in possession of top-secret plans for a British ballistic missile project. In Don Sharp's 1978 version, with Robert Powell as Hannay, a ring of secret agents intend to assassinate the visiting Greek Prime Minister by planting a bomb inside Parliament. The Thirty-Nine Steps refers here to the number of stairs in the clock tower of Big Ben. Hannay realises the bomb is set to go off at 11.45 and manfully struggles to hold back the hands of the clock. Mickery has dispensed with the assassination attempt, which is in Buchan's original, but has kept the ring of German spies. Love interest comes in the form of Victoria, a suffragette who is 'very spunky and of her time'. Penry-Jones's Hannay is 'superb', Mickery adds. 'He is not a professional spy, like a Bond or a Jason Bourne.

The great joy of Hannay is that this is not a path he has chosen.' Historic Steps The Thirty-Nine Steps, 1915 John Buchan wrote the book while in Broadstairs. Steps down to the beach gave him his title. The 39 Steps, 1935 Hitchcock's film stars Robert Donat as Hannay, who is visited by a spy being chased by assassins after uncovering a plot to steal British plans for a silent aircraft engine. The 39 Steps, 1959 In Ralph Thomas's remake, Kenneth More is thrown into the mystery by the death of a beautiful spy who has told him of an enemy group, The 39 Steps, which has stolen plans for a British missile. The Thirty Nine Steps, 1978 Starring Robert Powell, Don Sharp's film is set in the run-up to the First World War as foreign agents plan to bomb Parliament and kill a Greek leader.

Question: Who wrote the classic thriller novel The Thirty-Nine Steps?
Answer: John Buchan