The Dancing Floor - John Buchan

Huntingtower - John Buchan

childish ears have been habituated to every coarseness, their small minds filled with the desperate shifts of living...and yet, what a heavenly spark was in them!" Buchan, who had lived in a better part of the Gorbals during part of his childhood, was apparently happy to mix with all sorts. He had taught kids like Dougal in Sunday school. On the other hand, Buchan was a Tory MP who allegedly loved to mingle with the high and mighty. It is possible that Buchan's views on the working man were not all that different from those of Dickson McCunn. In conversation with heritage, McCunn says of the working man that he is "only looking for a drink and a rise ...

The Thirty-nine Steps - John Buchan

This classic thriller or shocker by John Buchan is famous for its action packed plot and gripping cliff hangers. There are surprises around every corner as our hero, Richard Hannay flees to Scotland to escape a conviction for a murder he did not commit. The murder victim is Scudder; a secret agent who dug a little too deeply and found he couldn t hide well enough from the Prussian agents in hot pursuit. The agents will stop at nothing to accomplish their mission...unless Richard Hannay can outwit them and blow their cover. Hannay s travels take him into the Highlands, desperately trying to stay hidden from the Police and the agents until he can gather enough ...

The Thirty-nine Steps - John Buchan

I was recommended this book by my grandfather, who read it as a boy back in the 1920s. He told me that it was his favourite book for years, and I decided to take him up on his proposal when I found it on sale in £1 classics. Well, I did enjoy this book. My father collects old boys' annuals from around the turn of the century; spiffing tales of derring-do and whipping johnny hun, all that sort of thing. I found Buchan's book to be very much in the same vein. I should not reveal the story too much, but I will say that it concerns a young colonial who, returning to England, is caught up in a vast and nefarious plot to undermine the entire British Empire after his flatmate is ...