
A gripping tale of adventure that has enthralled readers since it was first published, John Buchan`s ” The Thirty-Nine Steps” is edited with an introduction & notes by Sir John Keegan in ” Penguin Classics”. Adventurer Richard Hannay has just returned from South Africa & is thoroughly bored with his London life
- until a spy is murdered in his flat, just days after having warned Hannay of an assassination plot that could plunge Britain into a war with Germany. An obvious suspect for the police & an easy target for the killers, Hannay picks up the trail left by the assassins, fleeing to Scotl&, where he must use all his wits to stay one step ahead of the game
- & 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 & inspired many other novelists & filmmakers including Alfred Hitchcock. In his introduction to this edition, historian Sir John Keegan compares Buchan`s life
- his experiences in South Africa, his love of Scotland & his moral integrity
- with his fictional hero. This edition also
Includes:: notes, a chronology & further reading. John Buchan (1875-1940) was born in Perth, & first began writing at Oxford University, producing two volumes of essays, four novels & two collections of stories & poems before the age of twenty-five. During the First World War he worked both as a journalist & at Britain`s War Propaganda Bureau, eventually becoming Director of Information. He published his most popular novel, ” The Thirty-Nine Steps”, in 1915
- & it has never since been out of print. If you enjoyed ” The Thirty-Nine Steps”, you might like G.K. Chesterton`s ” The Man Who Was Thursday”, also available in ” Penguin Classics”. ” Richard Hannay is...a modern knight-errant”. (” Observer”). ” Once you`ve started, you can`t put the book down”. (Stella Rimington).