books in order

John Buchan Books In Order

Richard Hannay Books In Publication Order

  1. The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
  2. Greenmantle (1916)
  3. Mr. Standfast (1919)
  4. The Three Hostages (1924)
  5. The Courts Of The Morning (1929)
  6. The Island of Sheep (1936)

Leithen Stories Books In Publication Order

  1. The Power-House (1916)
  2. John MacNab (1924)
  3. The Dancing Floor (1926)
  4. Sick Heart River (1941)

Dickson McCunn Books In Publication Order

  1. Huntingtower (1922)
  2. Castle Gay (1930)
  3. The House of the Four Winds (1935)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. John Burnet of Barns (1898)
  2. A Lost Lady of Old Years (1899)
  3. The Half-Hearted (1900)
  4. A Lodge in the Wilderness (1906)
  5. Prester John (1910)
  6. Salute to Adventurers (1915)
  7. Midwinter (1923)
  8. Witch Wood (1927)
  9. The Magic Walking Stick (1927)
  10. The Blanket Of The Dark (1931)
  11. The Gap In The Curtain (1932)
  12. A Prince of the Captivity (1933)
  13. The Free Fishers (1934)
  14. The Long Traverse (1941)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. The Novel and the Fairy Tale (1977)
  2. The Kirk in Scotland (1985)
  3. These for Remembrance (1987)
  4. Gordon At Khartoum (2006)
  5. Sir Quixote of the Moors (2008)
  6. Musa Piscatrix (2013)
  7. No-Man’s-Land (2014)
  8. What I Saw In California (2015)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. Grey Weather: Moorland Tales of My Own People (1899)
  2. The Watcher By the Threshold and Other Tales (1902)
  3. The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies (1912)
  4. The Runagates Club (1928)
  5. The Strange Adventures of Mr Andrew Hawthorn (1932)
  6. The Clearing House: A Survey of One’s Mind (1946)
  7. Best Short Stories (1984)
  8. The Best Supernatural Stories of John Buchan (1991)
  9. Supernatural Buchan (1997)
  10. Collected Supernatural Stories (2012)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Scholar Gipsies (1896)
  2. Sir Walter Raleigh (1897)
  3. Some Eighteenth Century Byways, And Other Essays (1908)
  4. Sir Walter Scott (1911)
  5. Andrew Jameson, Lord Ardwall (1913)
  6. History of the Battle of the Somme (1917)
  7. Francis and Riversdale Grenfell, a Memoir (1920)
  8. A History of the Great War (1922)
  9. The Last Secrets (1923)
  10. Days to Remember (1923)
  11. Lord Minto (1924)
  12. Montrose (1928)
  13. Julius Caesar (1932)
  14. The Massacre of Glencoe (1933)
  15. Oliver Cromwell (1934)
  16. The King’s Grace: 1910-1935 (1935)
  17. Episodes of the Great War (1936)
  18. Augustus (1937)
  19. Naval Episodes of the Great War (1938)
  20. Memory Hold-the-Door (1940)
  21. Pilgrim’s Way (1940)
  22. John Buchan By His Wife and Friends (1947)
  23. A History of the First World War (1991)
  24. The Marquis of Montrose (1996)
  25. History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers (2005)
  26. The Battle of the Somme, First Phase (2012)
  27. The Last Secrets – The Final Mysteries of Exploration (2013)
  28. John Buchan’s 1914 (2014)
  29. Buchan’s War (2015)
  30. The Path of the King (2015)
  31. Britain’s War by Land (2015)
  32. The Nations of To-Day (2015)
  33. The First World War in Africa 1914-1918 (2018)
  34. Italy: The Nations of To-day (2019)
  35. Nine Journeys of Wonder (2020)

Poetry Collections In Publication Order

  1. John Buchan’s Collected Poems (1996)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Far Islands and Other Tales of Fantasy (1984)
  2. Great Flying Stories (1991)
  3. Spies And Secret Agents (1993)

Richard Hannay Book Covers

Leithen Stories Book Covers

Dickson McCunn Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

Short Story Collections Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Poetry Collections Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

John Buchan Books Overview

The Thirty-Nine Steps

From the Movie by Alfred Hitchcock, Licensed by ITV Global Entertainment Limited and an original concept by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon Characters: 3m, 1f Comedy WINNER! 2 Tony and Drama Desk Awards, 2008 WINNER! BEST NEW COMEDY Laurence Olivier Award, 2007 The 39 Steps, is Broadway’s longest running comedy, playing its 500th performance on Broadway, May 19th, 2009! Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This 2 time Tony and Drama Desk Award winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters played by a ridiculously talented cast of 4, an on stage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old fashioned romance! In The 39 Steps, a man with a boring life meets a woman with a thick accent who says she’s a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious organization called ‘The 39 Steps’ is hot on the man’s trail in a nationwide manhunt that climaxes in a death defying finale! A riotous blend of virtuoso performances and wildly inventive stagecraft, The 39 Steps amounts to an unforgettable evening of pure pleasure! ‘A wonderful triumph of theatre!’ BBC Radio 4 ‘It’s really not so much about a spoof of Hitchcock, which it is, of course; it’s really an homage to the theater. Not the contemporary theater, where mermaids traverse the stage on wheels and gargantuan mechanical sets get bigger applause than the actors, but the nostalgic version that survives on greasepaint and hammy actors. It’s a valentine to that kind of creativity and imagination, of doing so much with so little…
‘ The New York Times ‘THEATER AT ITS FINEST…
Absurdly enjoyable! This gleefully theatrical riff on Hitchcock’s film is fast and frothy, performed by a cast of four that seems like a cast of thousands.’ Ben Brantley, The New York Times ‘The most entertaining show on Broadway!’ Liz Smith, The New York Post ‘INGENIOUS! A DIZZY DELIGHT!’ Joe Dziemianowicz, Daily News ‘RIOTOUS & MARVELOUS!’ Clive Barnes, The New York Post ‘Whirlwind funny business!’ Michael Sommers, The Star Ledger ‘a giddy display of theatrical invention!’ David Rooney, Variety ‘comedy of the highest order!’ Roma Torre, NY1 ‘About the cleverest show on Broadway in a long time!’ David Richardson, WOR Radio ‘Rollicking Fun! Hugely Entertaining!’ Sunday Times ‘Clever, very funny, imaginative and brilliantly acted!’ The Guardian ‘Dizzyingly entertaining show!’ Daily Telegraph

Greenmantle

I had just finished breakfast and was filling my pipe when I got Bullivant’s telegram. It was at Furling, the big country house in Hampshire where I had come to convalesce after Loos, and Sandy, who was in the same case, was hunting for the marmalade. I flung him the flimsy with the blue strip pasted down on it, and he whistled. ‘Hullo, Dick, you’ve got the battalion. Or maybe it’s a staff billet. You’ll be a blighted brass hat, coming it heavy over the hard working regimental officer. And to think of the language you’ve wasted on brass hats in your time!’ I sat and thought for a bit, for the name ‘Bullivant’ carried me back eighteen months to the hot summer before the war. I had not seen the man since, though I had read about him in the papers. For more than a year I had been a busy battalion officer, with no other thought than to hammer a lot of raw stuff into good soldiers. I had succeeded pretty well, and there was no prouder man on earth than Richard Hannay when he took his Lennox Highlanders over the parapets on that glorious and bloody 25th day of September. Loos was no picnic, and we had had some ugly bits of scrapping before that, but the worst bit of the campaign I had seen was a tea party to the show I had been in with Bullivant before the war started. The sight of his name on a telegram form seemed to change all my outlook on life.

Mr. Standfast

I spent one third of my journey looking out of the window of a first class carriage, the next in a local motor car following the course of a trout stream in a shallow valley, and the last tramping over a ridge of downland through great beech woods to my quarters for the night. In the first part I was in an infamous temper; in the second I was worried and mystified; but the cool twilight of the third stage calmed and heartened me, and I reached the gates of Fosse Manor with a mighty appetite and a quiet mind. As we slipped up the Thames valley on the smooth Great Western line I had reflected ruefully on the thorns in the path of duty. For more than a year I had never been out of khaki, except the months I spent in hospital. They gave me my battalion before the Somme, and I came out of that weary battle after the first big September fighting with a crack in my head and a D.S.O. I had received a C.B. for the Erzerum business, so what with these and my Matabele and South African medals and the Legion of Honour, I had a chest like the High Priest’s breastplate. I rejoined in January, and got a brigade on the eve of Arras.

The Three Hostages

‘Buchan showed the way. His pace and drive always spelled adventure, always writ large’ Graham Greene. ‘Buchan was a major influence on my work’ Alfred Hitchcock talking to Francois Truffaut. ‘The Hannay books are…
about penetration of the enemy, about lonely escape and wild journeys, about the thin veneer that stands between civilisation and barbarism even in the most elegant drawing room in London’ Robin W Winks. 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.

The Courts Of The Morning

South America is the setting for this adventure from the author of The Thirty nine Steps. When Archie and Janet Roylance decide to travel to the Gran Seco to see its copper mines they find themselves caught up in dreadful danger; rebels have seized the city. Janet is taken hostage in the middle of the night and it is up to the dashing Don Luis de Marzaniga to aid her rescue.

The Island of Sheep

In this, the fifth and final Richard Hannay adventure, John Buchan makes his hero an older, wiser and more yielding character the book was written a full decade after the fourth Hannay novel. The Island of Sheep is one of Buchan’s least known works, but it continues his popular style of high adventure, wonderfully descriptive prose, erudite literary references and veiled subtexts. In reviewing the book, The Times Literary Supplement described Buchan as ‘evidently very much more than a yarn-spinner; and yet, as a yarn-spinner, so complete a master’.

The Power-House

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 1875 1940, was a Scottish novelist and a Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan at first entered into a career in law in 1901, but almost immediately moved into politics, becoming private secretary to British colonial administrator Alfred Milner, who was high commissioner for South Africa, Governor of Cape Colony and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Buchan gained an acquaintance with the country that was to feature prominently in his writing. On his return to London, he became a partner in a publishing company while he continued to write books. In 1910, he wrote Prester John, the first of his adventure novels, set in South Africa. During World War I, he wrote for the War Propaganda Bureau and was a correspondent for The Times in France. In 1915, he published his most famous book The Thirty Nine Steps, a spy thriller set just before the outbreak of World War I. The following year he published a sequel Greenmantle.

John MacNab

The three heroes of John MacNab 1925 have everything to lose if their daring exploit should fail. Each is a leader in his field one is a barrister and was the Attorney General, one a Cabinet Minister, one an eminent banker and each is suffering from an indefinable boredom and lethargy in London. They decide to emulate and extend the exploits of a famous gentleman poacher in the Scottish Highlands and issue a challenge to three estates: that they will successfully poach from them two stages and a salmon at a given time, signing themselves collectively John MacNab‘ . Risking more than reputation, they cure themselves of ennui but that is only part of the story. In John MacNab Buchan was writing at the height of his powers, taking such a joy in the twists of his story, his richly drawn characters, and the Highland landscape that this has become one of his best loved adventures. This book is intended for general readers; students of Scottish literature and 20th century adventure story.

The Dancing Floor

Lawyer and MP Sir Edward Leithen has always taken a protective stance towards the introspective Vernon Milbourne, orphaned since childhood and haunted by a powerful recurring dream. A cruise in the Aegean introduces them to the romantically mysterious Greek island of Plakos where Vernon is enthralled by ancient rites and myth. But when they encounter bold and beautiful Kor ‘e Arabin, whose father’s legacy is the islanders’ hatred, fanatic local superstitions become more menacing and Vernon is compelled to take action against her destruction. A fast paced and exciting adventure of psychological complexity, trial and redemption, obsession and destiny, The Dancing Floor 1926 is one of Buchan’s most resonant, exotic and romantic novels. This book is intended for undergraduate courses on twentieth century fiction; the general reader.

Sick Heart River

I have made my peace with the North, faced up to it, defied it, and so won its blessing.’ Given a year to live, lawyer and MP Sir Edward Leithern fears he will die unfulfilled and disillusioned. He resolves to devote his last energies to finding and restoring to health a young Canadian banker, Galliard, whose own personal crisis has led him to seek solace in the search for the distant River of the Sick Heart in remotest north west Canada. Enduring a severe Arctic winter, Leithen finds Galliard and feels his own health returning. The North has healed both men, but only one will return to civilization. Sick Heart River 1941 was John Buchan’s last novel, published after his death while in his final year of office as Governor General of Canada, and many consider it his finest. This edition is helpfully annotated and has a substantial introduction which considers the novel’s vital place in British and Canadian literature of the mid century. This book is intended for general readers; students of the adventure novel, colonial literature Canada.

Huntingtower

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 1875 1940, was a Scottish novelist and a Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan at first entered into a career in law in 1901, but almost immediately moved into politics, becoming private secretary to British colonial administrator Alfred Milner, who was high commissioner for South Africa, Governor of Cape Colony and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Buchan gained an acquaintance with the country that was to feature prominently in his writing. On his return to London, he became a partner in a publishing company while he continued to write books. In 1910, he wrote Prester John, the first of his adventure novels, set in South Africa. During World War I, he wrote for the War Propaganda Bureau and was a correspondent for The Times in France. In 1915, he published his most famous book The Thirty Nine Steps, a spy thriller set just before the outbreak of World War I. The following year he published a sequel Greenmantle.

Castle Gay

Retired Glasgow provisions merchant and adventurer, Dickson McCunn, first seen in Huntingtower, features for a second time in Castle Gay. His group of boys known as the Gorbals Die hards have gone on to Cambridge University. Now Dougal and Jaikie embark on ‘seeing the world’. Their escapades involve Castle Gay, its occupant Mr Craw, and all manner of interesting characters.

The House of the Four Winds

A sequel to Huntingtower and Castle Gay, The House of the Four Winds is set in Central Europe in the 1930s. 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. He is not the only one needing to be rescued Evallonia’s fate hangs in the balance until Dickson McCunn appears on the scene.

John Burnet of Barns

This historical adventure romance portrays the lives of the Covenanters in the Scottish Borders. It is the seventeenth century and treachery and revenge feature when a young nobleman sets out to gain an education abroad. In his absence he is betrayed by his cousin.

A Lost Lady of Old Years

A Lost Lady of Old Years is set in Scotland in 1745, during the Jacobite Rebellion. This dark story of loyalty and betrayal on the road to Culloden Moor recounts the adventures of Francis Birkenshaw. The Jacobite cause means nothing to him until a chance meeting with the beautiful Margaret Murray presents an opportunity for profit and adventure. This fateful encounter marks the beginning of Francis’s involvement with John Murray of Broughton, an infamous traitor and turncoat.

The Half-Hearted

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 1875 1940, was a Scottish novelist and a Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan at first entered into a career in law in 1901, but almost immediately moved into politics, becoming private secretary to British colonial administrator Alfred Milner, who was high commissioner for South Africa, Governor of Cape Colony and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Buchan gained an acquaintance with the country that was to feature prominently in his writing. On his return to London, he became a partner in a publishing company while he continued to write books. In 1910, he wrote Prester John, the first of his adventure novels, set in South Africa. During World War I, he wrote for the War Propaganda Bureau and was a correspondent for The Times in France. In 1915, he published his most famous book The Thirty Nine Steps, a spy thriller set just before the outbreak of World War I. The following year he published a sequel Greenmantle.

A Lodge in the Wilderness

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 1875 1940, was a Scottish novelist and a Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan at first entered into a career in law in 1901, but almost immediately moved into politics, becoming private secretary to British colonial administrator Alfred Milner, who was high commissioner for South Africa, Governor of Cape Colony and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Buchan gained an acquaintance with the country that was to feature prominently in his writing. On his return to London, he became a partner in a publishing company while he continued to write books. In 1910, he wrote Prester John, the first of his adventure novels, set in South Africa. During World War I, he wrote for the War Propaganda Bureau and was a correspondent for The Times in France. In 1915, he published his most famous book The Thirty Nine Steps, a spy thriller set just before the outbreak of World War I. The following year he published a sequel Greenmantle.

Prester John

When I was a child in short coats a spaewife came to the town end, and for a silver groat paid by my mother she riddled my fate. It came to little, being no more than that I should miss love and fortune in the sunlight and find them in the rain. The woman was a haggard, black faced gypsy, and when my mother asked for more she turned on her heel and spoke gibberish; for which she was presently driven out of the place by Tarn Roberton, the baillie, and the village dogs. But the thing stuck in my memory, and together with the fact that I was a Thursday’s bairn, and so, according to the old rhyme, ‘had far to go,’ convinced me long ere I had come to man’s estate that wanderings and surprises would be my portion. It is in the rain that this tale begins. I was just turned of eighteen, and in the back end of a dripping September set out from our moorland house of Auchencairn to complete my course at Edinburgh College. The year was 1685, an ill year for our countryside; for the folk were at odds with the King’s Government, about religion, and the land was full of covenants and repressions. Small wonder that I was backward with my colleging…
.

Salute to Adventurers

When I was a child in short coats a spaewife came to the town end, and for a silver groat paid by my mother she riddled my fate. It came to little, being no more than that I should miss love and fortune in the sunlight and find them in the rain. The woman was a haggard, black faced gypsy, and when my mother asked for more she turned on her heel and spoke gibberish; for which she was presently driven out of the place by Tarn Roberton, the baillie, and the village dogs. But the thing stuck in my memory, and together with the fact that I was a Thursday’s bairn, and so, according to the old rhyme, ‘had far to go,’ convinced me long ere I had come to man’s estate that wanderings and surprises would be my portion. It is in the rain that this tale begins. I was just turned of eighteen, and in the back end of a dripping September set out from our moorland house of Auchencairn to complete my course at Edinburgh College. The year was 1685, an ill year for our countryside; for the folk were at odds with the King’s Government, about religion, and the land was full of covenants and repressions. Small wonder that I was backward with my colleging…
.

Midwinter

Set in 1745, as Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebel army marches south into England, ‘Midwinter‘ tells the story of Alastair Maclean, one of the Prince’s most loyal supporters. Sent on ahead to carry out a secret mission of great importance for the Jacobite cause, 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.’ But England in 1745 is a land awash with double dealing and betrayal, and, as his enemies close in on him, Maclean uncovers evidence that there is a traitor at work, someone so close to the Prince that no one suspects him…
.

Witch Wood

In The Witch Wood 1927 John Buchan brings all the tension of his wartime thrillers to a complex story of witchcraft in the ancient Wood of Caledon in the Scottish Borders. It is a stirring and challenging tale of seventeenth century devilry, combatted in vain by David Sempill, the parish minister, who is hindered by the hypocrisy of his parishioners and his fellow ministers’ cant. In the background, meanwhile, the civil unrest of the Scottish Wars of the Covenant tears David’s loyalties between his love of his calling and his admiration for the Marquis of Montrose, the leading opponent of the extreme Covenanters. Witch Wood also tells a love story that owes much to the ballads Buchan learned from his father and is infused with a subtle, other worldly longing, nourished by the author’s knowledge of Dante, Plato, and Virgil. The Dark Wood is not merely Scottish: it is the classical and medieval symbol for the subliminal powers which challenge reason in every age. This book is intended for general readers, Buchan fans, readers of Scottish fiction.

The Magic Walking Stick

This charming one of a kind classic is a beautiful compilation which includes the timeless story, The Magic Walking Stick and several additional Arabian Nights classic stories including; The Seven Voyages of Sinbad, The Story of the Magic Horse, The Story of the Fisherman and the Genie and more.

The Blanket Of The Dark

The period is the Pilgrimage of Grace. In the country west of Oxford, nobles, clergy and laity await the success of the risings in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire to overthrow Henry VIII and Cromwell. Peter Pentecost is the man they plan to put on the English throne. Although a monk by training, he is the legitimate child of the Duke of Buckingham and the last of the Bohuns. His bid to be crowned and his duel with Henry VIII make for an exciting adventure.

The Gap In The Curtain

The Gap In The Curtain is a supernatural story full of suspense. Guests at a country house party are enabled by an eccentric scientist to see a glimpse of an issue of the Times dated a year ahead of time.

A Prince of the Captivity

This is the epic story of one man’s courage. Adam Melfort is an officer and a gentleman. A brilliant career lies ahead of him until he is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Afterwards, Adam embarks on daring missions in the service of his country. Dangerous work behind enemy lines in World War I and espionage in 1920s Germany are adventures he bravely undertakes.

The Free Fishers

Set in the bleak Yorkshire hamlet of Hungrygrain, this is a stirring tale of treason and romance. Anthony Lammas, minister and Professor of Logic at St Andrews University finds himself entangled in a web of intrigue that threatens the country. His boyhood allegiance to a brotherhood of deep sea fishermen involves him and his handsome ex pupil with a beautiful but dangerous woman.

The Long Traverse

This enchanting adventure tells the story of Donald, a boy spending his summer holidays in the Canadian countryside. John Buchan knew that some Indians were said to have the power of projecting happenings of long ago on to a piece of calm water. In this tale he chooses Negog, the Native American Indian, as Donald’s companion and guide. Negog conjures up a strange mist from a magic fire and brings to life visions from the past. Through these boyish adventures peopled with Vikings, gold prospectors, Indians and Eskimos Donald learns more about history than school has taught him.

Gordon At Khartoum

The year is 1883 and Gladstone finds that the cutting of the Suez Canal has involved Britain irrevocably in Egypt’s affairs. General Gordon, Governor of the Sudan, is sent on a mission to evacuate Khartoum. He is besieged there for ten months by the Mahdi’s troops and is killed two days before a relief force arrives. This gripping historical account focuses on the bravery of this great man.

Sir Quixote of the Moors

In the mid sixteenth century, Jean de Rohaine, a middle aged French nobleman, journeys to Scotland in search of adventure and a new beginning. In Scotland he meets up with his old friend, Quentin Kennedy, who informs him of a great battle to be waged. Yet what is the Frenchman’s horror when he rides with Kennedy’s men in search of honour, but finds instead that the ‘war’ is with unarmed religious dissidents, ‘Covenanters,’ whom he watches massacred. Disgusted, he sets off alone across the barren moors, where he wanders until he comes to a cottage containing a beautiful and unprotected young woman, Anne. Rohaine promises to be her protector, but his ideals of honour and duty will be put to the test when he finds himself gradually falling in love with her…
. A powerful examination of religious fanaticism, Sir Quixote of the Moors 1895 was Buchan’s first novel, published when he was a twenty year old undergraduate. With its haunting evocation of the bleak, desolate Scottish landscape and intriguing character study of its Quixote, Sir Quixote is a unique novel that differs from, yet anticipates, Buchan’s later works, such as The Thirty Nine Steps 1915.

Grey Weather: Moorland Tales of My Own People

Grey Weather is the first collection of sketches from John Buchan, author of The Thirty-nine Steps. The subtitle, Moorland Tales of My Own People, sets the theme of these fourteen stories. Shepherds, farmers, herdsmen and poachers are Buchan’s subjects and his love for the hills and the lochs shines through.

The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 1875 1940, was a Scottish novelist and a Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan at first entered into a career in law in 1901, but almost immediately moved into politics, becoming private secretary to British colonial administrator Alfred Milner, who was high commissioner for South Africa, Governor of Cape Colony and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Buchan gained an acquaintance with the country that was to feature prominently in his writing. On his return to London, he became a partner in a publishing company while he continued to write books. In 1910, he wrote Prester John, the first of his adventure novels, set in South Africa. During World War I, he wrote for the War Propaganda Bureau and was a correspondent for The Times in France. In 1915, he published his most famous book The Thirty Nine Steps, a spy thriller set just before the outbreak of World War I. The following year he published a sequel Greenmantle.

The Runagates Club

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 1875 1940, was a Scottish novelist and a Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan at first entered into a career in law in 1901, but almost immediately moved into politics, becoming private secretary to British colonial administrator Alfred Milner, who was high commissioner for South Africa, Governor of Cape Colony and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Buchan gained an acquaintance with the country that was to feature prominently in his writing. On his return to London, he became a partner in a publishing company while he continued to write books. In 1910, he wrote Prester John, the first of his adventure novels, set in South Africa. During World War I, he wrote for the War Propaganda Bureau and was a correspondent for The Times in France. In 1915, he published his most famous book The Thirty Nine Steps, a spy thriller set just before the outbreak of World War I. The following year he published a sequel Greenmantle.

The Strange Adventures of Mr Andrew Hawthorn

A new selection of short stories by ‘the prince of thriller writers’ The Times, London The short stories of John Buchan are known for their authentically rendered backgrounds, taut pacing, and atmosphere of expectancy and international intrigue. These diverse tales combine Buchan’s remarkable experiences and interests as a traveler, war correspondent, politician, and classical scholar. Edited by acclaimed author Giles Foden, this selection features the World War I thriller ‘The Loathly Opposite,’ the frequently anthologized ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence,’ and ‘Streams of Water in the South,’ one of Buchan’s personal favorites. Addressing such themes as human frailty, strength, and redemption, the stories testify to Buchan’s worldview that mastery of oneself leads to the fulfillment of one’s destiny.

The Clearing House: A Survey of One’s Mind

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir 1875 1940, was a Scottish novelist and a Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan at first entered into a career in law in 1901, but almost immediately moved into politics, becoming private secretary to British colonial administrator Alfred Milner, who was high commissioner for South Africa, Governor of Cape Colony and colonial administrator of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Buchan gained an acquaintance with the country that was to feature prominently in his writing. On his return to London, he became a partner in a publishing company while he continued to write books. In 1910, he wrote Prester John, the first of his adventure novels, set in South Africa. During World War I, he wrote for the War Propaganda Bureau and was a correspondent for The Times in France. In 1915, he published his most famous book The Thirty Nine Steps, a spy thriller set just before the outbreak of World War I. The following year he published a sequel Greenmantle.

Supernatural Buchan

Supernatural Buchan Stories of Ancient Spirits uncanny places and strange creatures. Buchan’s stories of solid characters clad in tweeds and braving all odds armed only with a stout walking stick have become popular classics. Perhaps it is therefore no surprise that the same character types populate his highly entertaining tales of the strange and weird here collected into a feast of supernatural delights. In a Buchan story the hauntings and other manifestations are far more subtle than the usual blood curdling phantoms. The author brings finely crafted detail and a profound sense of the spirit of landscape specially that of his native Scotland and place to locales that are as disparate as the stories themselves. Whether they are acknowledged or not, ancient other worldly creatures, deities and people intrude into Buchan’s settings to influence and effect the lives of ‘modern’ man. These wonderful tales of hidden threat and menace make dealing with the mundane concerns of our own world seem like child’s play.

Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh is the most boyish hero in history. Till his head fell on the block he never lost his eager, generous interest in life. He was planning great adventures when other men are dull and middle aged. So wrote John Buchan in his introduction to this life of Sir Walter Raleigh, told in eleven stories. Born in 1552, Raleigh was a man who took risks. Buchan admires this and covers his career as a brilliant courtier, soldier, sailor, great discoverer, statesman and scholar. He follows Raleigh’s progress from favourite of Elizabeth I to his fall from grace under James I. His three expeditions to America and his failed expedition to the Orinoco in search of a goldmine that led to his execution in 1618.

Sir Walter Scott

Buchan vividly and affectionately describes the writer whose novels and poems made him the most popular author of his day. Scott was born in 1771 to a powerful Border family. Buchan is qualified to write with sympathy about his Scottish upbringing, disappointment in love and decline into illness and bankruptcy. His feeling for Scott’s novels brings them alive for us and provides a deeper understanding of such major works as Ivanhoe and Waverley.

Montrose

Graham, Marquis of Montrose. John Buchan describes Montrose‘s command of the royalist forces during the 1644 to 1650 war with the Covenanters. Montrose‘s exceptional strength, leadership and military genius are brought to life. Buchan also illustrates an important period in Scottish history, adding his own measure of adventure to this study.

Julius Caesar

John Buchan wrote of Caesar ‘He performed the greatest constructive task ever achieved by human hands. He drew the habitable earth into an empire which lasted for five centuries, and he laid the foundations of a fabric of law and government which is still standing after two thousand years.’ In this romantic biography Buchan attempts to understand the hidden thoughts of the great soldier. He charts the tale of Caesar’s youth, early political career, success, conquest of Gaul and of the world, ending with his murder at the hands of Brutus and the Republican minded conspirators.

The Massacre of Glencoe

John Buchan, author of The Thirty Nine Steps, gives his account of the famous massacre. In February 1692 the small Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were massacred by Campbell of Glenlyon’s troops under orders from the English Government.

Oliver Cromwell

John Buchan sets out to redress many misconceived popular opinions of this English soldier and tatesman. His biography achieves that aim, starting with Cromwell’s childhood and youth. Born in 1599, Cromwell was a devout Puritan who, when the civil war broke out, quickly joined the Parliamentary forces. He fought many battles including Marston Moor and Naseby and was eventually instrumental in bringing Charles I to trial. After establishing the Commonwealth, he suppressed the Levellers, Ireland and the Scots. In 1653, five years before his death, he established a Protectorate. John Buchan wrote of Cromwell: ‘He is a soldier on the grand scale, strategist as well as tactician; statesman as well as fighting man; and it is by this new phase of his military career that his place is to be adjudged in the hierarchy of the great captains’.

The King’s Grace: 1910-1935

This sympathetic portrait starts with the death of Edward VII and George V’s succession. It was a reign that saw many changes including the Union of South Africa, the First World War and the General Strike of 1926. John Buchan wrote that ‘This book is not a biography of King Geroge, but an attempt to provide a picture and some slight interpretation of his reign, with the Throne as the continuing thing through an epoch of unprecedented change.’

Episodes of the Great War

Episodes of the Great War by JOHN BUCHAN CONTENTS BOOK I THE EARLY WAR OF MANOEUVRE I. PROLOGUE: AT SERAJEVO June 28, 1914, II. THE BREAKING OF THE BARRIERS The Immediate Results of the Serajevo Murders Germanys Council of War on 5th July Austrias Ultimatum toSerbia Germanys Proposal to Britain The Work of Sir Edward Grey The Ultimatums to France and Belgium The Invasion of Belgium The British Cabinet Britain declares War. III. THE BATTLE JOINED IN THE WEST The New Factors in War The German Plan The Attack on Liege Forts Early French Failures The British Expeditionary Force Mons The Retreat. IV. THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE The Defence of Paris Kluck changes Direction Eve of the Marne Battle of the Maine German Occupation of Belgium. V. FROM THE AISNE TO THE FIRST BATTLE OF YPRES Battle of the Aisne The Race to the Sea Fall of Antwerp Fight of the 2nd and 3rd Corps Battle of the Yser The First Battle of Ypres Death of Lord Roberts VI. THE WAR ON OTHER FRONTS AND AT SEA The Eastern Front Invasion of East Prussia Tannenberg Austrias Misfortunes War in the Pacific and Africa War at Sea Coronel Falkland Islands BOOK II THE BELEAGUERED FORTRESS VII. SPRING OF 1915 Winter Stalemate Neuve Chapelle Its Purpose and Consequences The Second Battle of Ypres VIII. THE DARDANELLES Reasons for the Expedition Naval Attack on the Straits Sir Ian Hamilton The Battle of the Landing The Battle of Krithia Landing at Suvla Its Failure IX. THE BATTLE OF LOOS The Russian Retreat from the Donajetz Spring Offensives in the West The French at Artois Festubert The Summer Stagnation Loos Sir John French surrenders his Command X. RETROSPECT OF 1915 KutItaly enters the War The Over running of Serbia The Lusitania sunk New Government in Britain Attitude of Labour Lord Derbys Recruiting Scheme The Military Service Bill Edith Cavell The Evacuation of the Dardanelles XI. VERDUN AND THE SOMME Reasons for German Attack French Defence The Somme Region Strategy of the Projective Battle The First Day The Attack of July the Fourteenth Crest of the Uplands Won The Autumn Attacks The Weather Breaks Summary of the Action. XII. RETROSPECT OF 1916 Brussilovs Summer Offensive Rumania overrun Changes in French Command Joffre surrenders his Command Battle of Jutland Death of Lord Kitchener Fall of Government in Britain Mr. Lloyd George Prime MinisterWar Cabinet Mr. Asquith. BOOK III THE GREAT SALLIES XIII. THE OPENING OF 1917 German Manoeuvres for Peace President Wilsons Note The New Government in Britain The Russian Coup d’Etat Lenin and Others America declares War XIV. THE BATTLE OF ARRAS German Withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line Battle of Arras Failure of Nivelles Offensive Petain succeeds Nivelle French Mutinies. XV. THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES AND CAMBRAI Haigs Flanders Policy Battle of Messines The Pillboxes British Attacks The Weather Capture of Passchendaele Battle of Cambrai Enemy Counterattack Close of 1917 Campaign. XVI.

Augustus

In commenting upon the transformation of the Roman Republic into a great and glorious empire, John Bucan wrote: ‘This book is an attempt to understand a little part of the mind of a great man…
Augustus, while he had able colleagues and one of his gifts was his power to choose collaborators was always the master designer and the chief executant. ‘ Buchan’s study of Augustus, great nephew of Julius Caesar, is a descriptive and detailed biography. The author’s admiration for his subject’s creative mind and policies shine through this major historical account.

The Marquis of Montrose

This is the biography of the military leader, The Marquis of Montrose, who was a successful commander of the Scottish royalist forces during the war with the Covenanters, contemporaneous with the English Civil War. This book reveals Montrose’s military skills in descriptions of his battles, and also discusses his character. Cardinal de Retz called him the equal of a hero of antiquity, a Hector, a Roland, a Lancelot.

Great Flying Stories

H. G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Bach, Roald Dahl, Len Deighton and seven other famous writers explore the novelty, the adventure, and the skill of flying, in entertaining stories ranging from the fantastic to the factual.

Related Authors

Leave a Comment