John Burnet of Barns(1898) Buchan's first novel, is set in the Scottish Borders of 1678 and tells the story of two young noblemen -- John Burnet, heir to the ancient house of Barns and the last of a long line of border reivers, and his cousin Captain Gilbert Burnet, a dashing but ruthless soldier and adventurer. Their paths and swords cross on more than one occasion but their lifelong rivalry becomes a desperate struggle for survival when John returns from his travels in the Low Countries to discover that he has been denounced as an agent of the Covenanters, outlawed and deprived of his inheritance -- and all this as a result of the scheming of his treacherous cousin, a man who will stop at nothing to bring about his complete and utter ruin. A story of honor and loyalty, betrayal and retribution, this book is also a marvelous evocation of the Borders during the 'killing time' of the Covenanting period.

A Lost Lady of Old Years(1899). Set during the Jacobite rising of 1745 it is a tale of adventure and betrayal on the long bloody road to Culloden Moor. Its hero is Francis Birkenshaw, a young man who grew up in Edinburgh rejecting all notions of honor and loyalty. The Jacobite cause means nothing to him until a chance meeting with Margaret Murray, the wife of Prince Charles Edward's secretary presents him with what seems to be the perfect opportunity for adventure and profit. But it turns out to be a fateful one for it involves him with her husband, John Murray of Broughton, an individual destined to become one of the most reviled characters in Scottish history who saved his own life after the Culloden debacle by betraying his fellow Jacobites. It is a dark and unromantic tale -- an authentic portrayal of the Jacobite Rebellion.

Over ten years would elapse before his next novel appeared. Prester John (1910) was based on his experiences in South Africa. It is the story of a Scots lad, David Crawfurd, who travels to South Africa at the turn of the century seeking his fortune after his studies are interrupted by his father's death. Dark deeds and treacherous intrigues are afoot at the lonely trading post where he is assigned by his employers and these are bound up with the mysterious, ancient African kingdom of Prester John. David stumbles on to the key to the mystery and becomes involved in its ensuing warfare.

The Hannay Novels
Another five years elapsed before his next and best-known novel appeared --The Thirty-nine Steps (1915). Although exceptionally popular when it was first published, some of the fame claimed by this slim work is due to its having twice been I made into a film, once by that master of mystery and suspense, Alfred Hicthcock. It is another story of high adventure that introduces the character of Richard Hannay, a young South African mining engineer who returns to England and inadvertently becomes enmeshed in a plot of foreign agents who seek to do great harm to England just before the outbreak of World War I. There should be no difficulty in determining which foreign government was the culprit seeing as how it appeared during that conflict. What is surprising to me is that a native Scot would always refer to England when the proper term should be Great Britain. Perhaps he recognized that it was more important to please his potential English readers who outnumbered the Scots ten-to-one. However, much of the story takes place in Galloway which Buchan knew quite well as a college student and such considerations in no way interferes with what the author refers to as a 'shocker' -- a suspense filled tale that keeps the reader enthralled until the very last page.

Richard Hannay and other characters that appeared in 'The Steps' populate five later novels. In Greenmantle (1916) -- every bit as suspenseful as and twice the length of its predecessor -- Hannay works inside Germany as a secret agent sent to discover the details of a secret operation being conducted in Turkey, Germany's ally in WW I. He and his colleagues have the task of discovering the meaning of 'Greenmantle' before they can counter the operation and this involves matching wits with the prophetess of evil, Hilda von Einam, who is the operation's mastermind. Buchan's biographer, Janet Adam Smith, tells us that Buchan was publicly criticized for his 'sympathetic' treatment of some of the German characters in the book.

Mr. Standfast (1919) is the third of the Hannay novels. In its early stages it involves prewar mountain climbing in the Cuilin Hills on the Isle of Skye and finishes up in France in the trenches on the Western Front. Launcelot Wake is a prig and a fanatic for strange causes who opts for the role of conscientious objector in the war. He distinguishes himself not only as a mountaineer but a noncombatant at the front. For this sympathetic treatment, Buchan again felt the sting of public criticism. However, he delivers a powerful message against the kind of war that was fought in France and makes sure that the master villain of the tale, Graf von Schwabing, gets his just desserts.

The Three Hostages (1924), is fourth in the Hannay series, half again as long as its predecessor. But this time the forces of evil aren't German. In fact, one of the German characters from Greenmantle is again treated as a good guy. The evil doer here is Dominick Medina, outwardly a much-admired and seemingly ultra-respectable member of London society but in fact he is a monster who heads a diabolical gang that kidnaps three citizens and holds them for outrageous ransom. Their weapon here is the ability to control peoples minds through hypnotism which, of course, Hannay is impervious. But don't jump to conclusions; things aren't as corny as I'm describing them. Here again is a gripping tale that Buchan sets in the post-war world of fears and uncertainty where civilization is beset by wreckers on a grand scale. The last part of the yarn takes place in the Highlands of Scotland and emphasizes Buchan's interest in outdoor sports such as stalking and mountain climbing.

The Courts of Morning (1929) is the fifth of the Hannay novels in a way because he disappears from the story after the introduction. The real hero is Sandy Arbuthnot who appeared in the 'The Steps' and 'Greenmantle'. The arena of action is a South American republic and the principal machinator is Castor, the Gobernador. Castor has seized control of the republic's minerals resources and (in the words of Janet Smith) seeks to make mischief for the United States. Castor is another charmer-villain such as Medina having many admirable qualities to divert the reader's attention from his evil heart and mind. Sandy, a master of disguises who appears to be patterned after T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) and leads an insurrection that seizes the mines and returns them to the people. Here we have a taste of the guerrilla warfare tactics that was to become more and more of a reality later in the century. Buchan consulted the well-known military theoretician, Captain Liddell Hart while writing 'Courts' who heartily approved of the tactics Sandy used.

The Island of Sheep (1936) is the last of the Hannay novels and was published when Buchan was first in Canada. It is dedicated to Buchan's son, Johnnie and involves much of what Janet Smith calls ³his enthusiasm for birds and for wild places.² It also involves Hannay's son, Peter John. The title refers to the Faeroe Islands that lie between Scotland and Iceland; the story begins in the Norfolk marshes of England but eventually involves a native kraal in Rhodesia, a Chinese jade tablet inscribed with mysterious symbols, a villain recycled from The Courts of Morning, and a beleaguered garrison on the island that is saved by a herd of whales. I leave it to you to make sense out of those ingredients!

The Legal-minded Outdoorsman
Sir Edward Leithen first appeared a Buchan short story and became another perennial character in no fewer than five of his novels. The first was The Power-House which appeared in hard covers in 1916 but had been serialized in a 1913 periodical. Thus, it is really Buchan's first Œshockerı and the beginning of a familiar theme in many of the novels that followed -- the Œthinness of civilizationı. Barrister Leithen is at first only mildly perturbed when a close friend vanishes under mysterious circumstances. But the strange events that follow the disappearance convince him that he has stumbled onto the activities of a sinister secret society whose code name is 'The Power-House'. Without evidence, the authorities can't act and Leithen finds himself standing alone against the might of these super criminals. This places him in awesome danger as he soon discovers. The novel is notable for the unsettling portrait of Edwardian London that it paints -- not the heart of the British Empire at its height but rather a nightmarish landscape haunted by the brethren of this cabal as it goes about its nefarious work, unseen and apparently unstoppable.

The second of the Leithen novels is John Macnab (1925). It's a light-hearted tale in which Leithen and two of his cronies decide to escape their boring London existence by poaching salmon and stags from the Highland estates adjoining that of a third crony. The idea came to Buchan from a real-world gentleman who announced his intentions to poach a stag and a salmon from a neighbor's property and bet the poachee that he couldn't prevent him or catch him in the act of the crime. The story proceeds happily along providing firsthand insights on Highland sport, shooting-lodges and weather in the twenties. A little politics is also added to the brew in that the action takes place during the run up to a Parliamentary election which Buchan also knew at first hand as a candidate. No villains or foreign conspirators are involved in this tale, only the owners of the adjoining estates -- a nouveau riche Sassenach, a Highland clan chief and some rather agreeable New England Yankees. The principal danger to the poachers is the potential for ridicule should they be caught and the risk of their outdoor skills not being sufficient to successfully complete the task. John Macnab is the pseudonym that the adventure-seekers use in signing the letters announcing their intentions and each attempt is conducted independently. A very interesting outcome awaits the reader as he follows exciting chases through a peaty wilderness that change the lives of all involved including the lovely Janet Raden (some romance at last!).

The novel for 1926 -- his budget required one a year at this point we are told to offset his | expenses -- is titled The Dancing Floor. Again Leithen is involved with black-hearted villains and the deepest of mysteries. However, this time the action takes place largely on a remote island in the Mediterranean where the superstitious locals still adhere to pagan rites. Leithen undertakes to aid a young Englishwoman whose family the islanders have long been blamed for every mishap and natural catastrophe that has befallen them. Up against the dark side of human nature in this tale of intrigue and magic, Leithen is the legal and rational man, the torchbearer for reason, who triumphs over the consequences of the spring rites that take place on the dancing floor. Those who crave action in London clubs and English country houses will not be disappointed in that several chapters take place in these less exotic venues.

Leithen's powers of reasoning and rationality play a principal role in The Gap in the Curtain (1932). It is a tale that involves foreseeing the future. Leithen leaves London to spend Whitsuntide at an English country house but an ordinary weekend turns into 'something completely different' when one of his hostess's other guests, a brilliant but enigmatic professor from a Scandinavian university, enlists Leithen and the others in an experiment that he claims will allow each of them to catch a fleeting glimpse of the future. His pitch goes as follows: Today is the 6th of June. Four days from now, if you and the others consent, I will enable you to see for one instant -- no longer -- a newspaper of the 10th day of June next year. The consequences for those who take part are dramatic, particularly for two of the subjects who read the announcements of their own death. Their reactions to this 'knowledge' differ remarkably as do those of the other participants.

Buchan's last novel, Sick Heart River (1941) again featured Leithen. The story was written in Canada and is based experiences that he had when he journeyed to the Arctic regions in 1937. Buchan was the fifteenth Governor General and the first to travel to all parts of that enormous country. Leithen's trip there was to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a man who seemed to have everything a man could possibly want. Inexplicably, he abandoned it all to head north in search of the mythical Sick Heart River. Leithen soon realizes that this is a mission from which he himself is unlikely to return alive. He is forced to confront his own deepest fears as well as the 'intangible terror of the North' as the pursuit of his quest draws him closer to the deadly secret of the Sick Heart River. Most of Buchan's novels found American publishers and enjoyed great popularity in the United States as well as at home. Usually, the US version bore the same title at that published in the UK. In some cases though, there was a change and Sick Heart River became Mountain Meadow.

The Retired Grocer From Glasgow
The unlikeliest of Buchan's heroes is Dickson McCunn who appears in three novels. When we first meet him in the novel Huntingtower (1922), he is a middle- aged owner of a prominent Glasgow grocery firm who has just sold his business and is seeking other activities. But certainly what he seeks are not the predicament in which he soon finds himself. Janet Smith tells us that in writing about McCunn, ³Buchan is paying a belated tribute to the Glasgow bourgeois, such as had lived in Queens Park and attended John Knox Free Kirk [Buchan's father's church] and to whose virtues he had been indifferent when he lived among them and looked on 'an avenue of respectable villa-residences and a well kept public park as the essence of dullness ... Buchan had spent most of his boyhood in such an environment which had not blunted his spirit of adventure; so the retired merchant, a church elder married to a woman whose idea of bliss was a vacation at a hydropathic spa is constructed with the soul of an adventurous romantic.² The building called Hunting Tower is a gloomy, decaying mansion abandoned by the family who had built it less than twenty years before. It should have been no more than passing interest to McCunn in the course of his leisurely walking holiday in the Ayrshire countryside. But by a chance meeting with John Heritage, a poet and veteran of WW I, and the mysterious events they witness one evening in the grounds of the shuttered house, brings his holiday to a close. Determined to uncover what is going on behind the strange occurrences involves the two in unexpected and dangerous adventures -- spiriting away a collection of precious jewels, shooting a local solicitor and leading a gang of Gorbals urchins who are camping in the area -- all of which are but a prelude to a deadly confrontation with foreign agents who have crossed Europe on a quest that has finally brought them to the gates of Huntingtower. This was Buchan's first novel since 'John Burnet of Barns' to be set entirely within Scotland and it provides the opportunity for him to demonstrate that he hadn't lost the ability to write in 'braid Scots' particularly when dealing with the Gorbals Die-Hards, made up of youths like he must have known when he taught Sunday-school classes at the John Knox Free Kirk.

The second McCunn novel is Castle Gay (1930). A millionaire newspaper proprietor Thomas Carlyle Craw is kidnapped. Why is his secretary behaving so strangely? What does this all have to do with the Central European state of Evallonia? And what is going on a Castle Gay? Dickson McCunn again finds himself embroiled in unsought adventure. Again we meet two of the Gorbals Die-Hards who are now on the way up, thanks to Dickson McCunn -- Dougal is doing well with the Craw Press and Jaikie is playing football for Cambridge and Scotland. In the latter we find something of the young Buchan who went South and wound up feeling less Scottish there. The story includes tramps "o'er the Gallowaı hills² by these two during their summer holidays just as Buchan did when he was at Oxford. Janet Smith tells us that Craw is modeled after a type of Scot that Buchan didn't like and his professional practices lead him into difficulty that is eventually solved by Dickson McCunn's common-sensible ways.

The third and last of the McCunn series is The House of the Four Winds (1935). The scene has shifted to Evallonia itself and the unpopular Evallonian government totters; the central European country becomes the scene for a bitter struggle for power between the pretender to the throne, Prince John, and the youth movement Juventus. Once again Dickson McCunn is caught up in intrigue and murder. There is a particularly good moment in the story when McCunn becomes an advisor to the royalists and recommends the use of tactics once successfully used by the Glasgow Town Council in the election of the Provost but otherwise the story is somewhat flat in that Buchan is not on familiar ground such as he is with his other stories.

Best For Last?
In sharp contrast to his 'shockers' are four more Buchan novels with an authentic historical background. The first of these is Midwinter (1923). The year again is 1745 and the Jacobite Rising has moved into England. As the Highland army marches southward, Alastair Maclean, a close confidant of Prince Charles Edward Stewart, sets out on a secret mission to raise support for the Jacobite Cause in the west of England. On his travels Maclean is befriended by two extraordinary and very different men -- Dr. Samuel Johnson, an impoverished tutor and aspiring man of letters, and the shadowy figure known only as 'Midwinter', guardian of the twilight world of ŒOld Englandı. Although many profess their loyalty to Charlie's Cause, Maclean begins to suspect that someone close to the Prince is passing vital information to the Government. But as he closes in on the traitor, Maclean himself is being pursued by Hanoverian agents and his life is in great danger. Many consider Midwinter to be one of the finest historical novels ever written in the same league as Scott and Stevenson. It is a classic tale of intrigue, treachery and suspense.

Buchan's favorite novel of all is Witchwood (1927). Set against the religious struggles of seventeenth century Scotland, with Montrose for the King against a covenanted Kirk, Witchwood is a gripping atmospheric tale, again in the spirit of Scott and Stevenson. David Semphill is a young but moderate Presbyterian minister who disputes the extremists of his faith. All around Semphill's parish the defeated remnants of Montrose's army defeated at Philiphaugh (1645) are being harried and slaughtered by the kirk faithful and Semphill's plea for compassion, like his love for the beautiful Katrine Yester, is out of kilter with the times. There are still older conflicts to be faced however, symbolized by the presence of the Melanudrill Wood, a last vestige of the ancient Caledonian forest in the Lowlands. Here among the crowded trees there is black magic to be uncovered, but also the more positive pre-Christian intimations of nature worship. In such a setting, and faced with the onset of the plague, the timeless aspect of David Semphill's struggle holds the reader closely in suspense.

Blanket of the Dark (1931) is set in the England of 1536. The disruptions of the Reformation have yet to be felt at the great medieval Abbey of Oseney near Oxford where a young man known as Peter Pentacost is completing his education. But Peterıs life is about to be changed forever when he uncovers a secret of his true identity -- he is the son and heir of Edward, Duke of Buckingham! It he rather than Henry Tudor that should be King of England. His anonymous life at Oseney has been carefully arranged to keep him from harm, safe until the day when those who have been watching over him are ready to challenge Henry VIII. From the moment that Peter discovers the truth he descends into the perilous world of conspiracy and treason as powerful men seek to persuade him to leave behind the security and tranquillity of life at Oseney and risk everything in a rebellion that could put him on the throne of England.

A Prince of the Captivity (1933) is the epic story of Adam Melfort -- an officer and a gentleman with a brilliant career ahead of him -- until he is imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. Determined to salvage something from the wreckage of his life, he embarks on a series of spectacular and daring missions in the service of his country -- dangerous work behind enemy lines during the first World War; desperate feats of endurance in the icy wastes of Greenland; intrigue and espionage in the Germany of the 1920s -- adventures that will ultimately lead to a deadly confrontation with the sinister forces that are intent on pushing Europe over the edge of the abyss into another world war. This novel is one of Buchan's most ambitious and complex -- a gripping story of one man's courage and self-sacrifice; but it is also a powerful evocation of Europe in turmoil -- emerging from the anarchy of the First World war only to face the disaster again under the looming shadow of Fascism.

The Free Fishers (1934) is a story of treason and adventure set in the early years of the 19th century when Britain was locked in combat with Emperor Napoleon. It begins when Andrew Lammas and his comrades attempt to save a young manıs life but soon, discover that his plight is merely one strand in a web of deceit and treachery that threatens the very security of Great Britain. The ingredients of this tale are a youthful professor of philosophy; an ancient secret society; a celebrated coachman and duelist; a young nobleman in danger; two beautiful women; a dark and decaying country house; and a fiendish conspiracy led by a ruthless fanatic who plans to strike a fatal blow at the heart of the government by delivering the country into the hands of its mortal enemies. The action stretches from the shores of Fife to the moors of Northumberland to the fens of East Anglia. The themes and landscapes of this novel echo those of Buchanıs great tales of treachery, conspiracy, deceit and adventure.

Short Stories The Watcher by the Threshold -- Shorter Scottish Fiction is the first ever complete collection of Buchan's shorter Scottish fiction. Set largely in his beloved Borders, these stories and novellas show the full range and depth of Buchan's writing. Featuring shepherds, poachers, gamekeepers and drovers, they are worlds away from the tales of aristocratic adventure with which Buchan is so often associated. Shot through with characters and places he returned to in his full-length fiction, that Buchan that emerges from this collection is a very different and complex writer than he is often held to be. Graham Greene tells us that Buchan was the first to realize the enormous dramatic value of adventure in familiar surroundings happening to unadventurous men.

Supernatural Tales is a collection of eerie samples taken from three earlier collections of Buchan's short stories -- The Watcher by the Threshold and Other Tales (1902), The Moon Endureth (1912) and The Runagates Club (1928). Dark forces, superstition and fear are everywhere in this new collection of Buchan's finest. From the rugged moorland of the Borders to the peaceful countryside of Edwardian England, demons, primitive spirits and ancient idols are at work, wreaking havoc and haunting the dreams of those unfortunate enough to encounter their malign influence. In a remote Highland glen a man flees for his life as ghostly figures emerge from the distant past; in rural Shropshire terror stalks the corridors of a magnificent country house; and on a lonely windswept shoreline a man is haunted by a strange vision that has been the nemesis of his ancestors which now seem to signal his own doom . . .

Non-fiction History
Only two of Buchanıs historical works are currently in print. The first of these to appear was The Marquis of Montrose which was published in 1913. It is the true story of James Graham, Marquis of Montrose who raised and led the royalist forces in Scotland for King Charles against the Covenanting forces between 1644 and 1650. Few careers can have such romantic unity as his . At a time when men died for half-truths and less, and others fled, he stood his ground for duty and reason, winning his fights against seemingly overwhelming odds. The bold, resourceful strategy of his campaigns and his intuitive leadership which him to rally and unify men where others have failed, rank him by common consent with the great military leaders of any age. In 1928 Buchan substantially rewrote the 1913 version adding a great deal of detail about the historical background and shortening the title to Montrose. The early version is the one now in print and the publishers say that they chose it because it is ³fresher, more vigorous and better read.² Bruce Lenman, Professor of History at St. Andrews University endorsed that choice calling it ³romantic adventure prose by a master of the genre.² It illustrates Buchanıs compassionate understanding of Scottish history while bringing Montroseıs nobility of character, strength of purpose and dazzling military genius to life with all the thrill of his later Œshockersı.

The Massacre of Glencoe (1933) is the true story of how Government forces under the command of Captain Robert Campbell came to exterminate the MacIan MacDonald inhabitants of Glencoe in 1692. The massacre was ordered by Sir John Dalrymple, Lord Stair and Secretary of State for Scotland under King William IIIıs government as an example to the Highland clans that had recently Œbeen outı with Bonnie Dundee. It is much more academic study than Montrose. In an introductory note Buchan writes: "In this essay in reconstruction I have tried to include no detail which has not a warrant from contemporary evidence, or is not a legitimate deduction from such evidence. The only liberty I have taken is now and then to state as a fact what should strictly be qualified a 'probably'." The text that follows is well documented with references but it reads like one of his novels. He introduces the principal characters of the tragedy both in Scotland and Westminster and traces each thread of the story with remarkable clarity and completeness yet with a great economy of words, there being only 175 pages in the original publication including the index. The present publication has the same number of words but many fewer pages.

Something For the Bairns
Buchan turned his hand at childrenıs stories in The Magic Walking Stick (1932). Home from school for his half-term holiday, Bill acquires a walking stick from a wizened old man. He soon discovers that this stick has magic properties capable of transporting him to any part of the world he wishes to go. After some experiments and dangerous visits to such places as the Solomon Islands, the elephantsı graveyard in Africa and a dramatic rescue trip in the Sahara Desert, Bill discovers that there are two other such magic sticks in the world. One is for gallivanting and amusement while the other is for chivalrous deeds. Misuse of either stick would result in its disappearance. Which one does Bill have?