Major General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by writer & diplomat John Buchan who was himself an Intelligence officer during the First World War. The strong & silent type combining the dour temperament of the Scot with the stiff upper lip of the Englishman Hannay is pre-eminent among early spy-thriller heroes. Caught up in the first of these five gripping adventures just before the outbreak of war in 1914 he manages to thwart the enemy's evil plan & solve the mystery of the 'thirty-nine steps'. In Greenmantle he undertakes a vital mission to prevent jihad in the Islamic Near East. Mr Standfast set in the decisive months of 1917-18 is the novel in which Hannay after a life lived 'wholly among men' finally falls in love; later in The Three Hostages he finds himself unravelling a kidnapping mystery with his wife's help. In the last adventure The Island of Sheep he is called upon to honour an old oath. A shrewd judge of men he never dehumanises his enemy & despite sharing some of the racial prejudices of his day Richard Hannay is a worthy prototype hero of espionage fiction.