Literature Network » John Buchan

TravelEtc: Grand tours - Thirty-nine steps away from justice Great writers and their adventures in literature. This week, John Buchan sends Richard Hannay on the run in Scotland

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From: The Independent - London
Date: 20020526
Author:John Buchan

Born in 1875 in Perth, John Buchan was the son of a minister. He attended grammar school in Glasgow and then went up to Oxford to read classics. After studying for the Bar, he abandoned law and pursued a variety of careers, including being a Tory MP and as an intelligence officer as well as writing fiction and biographies. He finally became Governor-General of Canada, where he died in 1940. But Buchan is best known for his writing and his most notable work was the novel `The Thirty-Nine Steps', which he wrote in 1915. Here the hero, the spy- catcher Richard Hannay, flees from police and spies ...

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