John Buchan's name is known across the world for The Thirty-Nine
Steps. In the past one hundred years the classic thriller has never
been out of print and has inspired numerous adaptations for film,
television, radio and stage, beginning with the celebrated version by
Alfred Hitchcock.
Yet there was vastly more to 'JB'. He wrote more than a hundred books -
fiction and non-fiction - and a thousand articles for newspapers and
magazines. He was a scholar, antiquarian, barrister, colonial
administrator, journal editor, literary critic, publisher, war
correspondent, director of wartime propaganda, member of parliament and
imperial proconsul - given a state funeral when he died, a deeply
admired and loved Governor-General of Canada.
His teenage years in Glasgow's Gorbals, where his father was the Free
Church minister, contributed to his ease with shepherds and ambassadors,
fur-trappers and prime ministers. His improbable marriage to a member of
the aristocratic Grosvenor family means that this account of his life
contains, at its heart, an enduring love story.
Ursula Buchan, his granddaughter, has drawn on recently discovered
family documents to write this comprehensive and illuminating biography.
With perception, style, wit and a penetratingly clear eye, she brings
vividly to life this remarkable man and his times.
