Major-General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and further made popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps.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 and solve the mystery of the "thirty-nine steps".In his autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door, Buchan suggests...

Richard Hannay Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour, is a fictional secret agent and army officer created by Scottish novelist John Buchan. In his autobiography,Memory Hold-the-Door, Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer War. [Novels] Hannay appears in several novels as a major character, including: 1.The Thirty-Nine Ste...

The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It first appeared as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in August and September 1915 before being published in book form in October that year by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations. The novel formed the basis for a number of film adaptations, not...

Classic British Works: 10 Books by John Buchan includes The African Colony: Studies in the Reconstruction, Greenmantle, The Half-Hearted, Huntingtower, The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies, Mr Standfast, The Path Of The King, Prester John, Salute To Adventurers, and The Thirty-Nine Steps. According to Wikipedia, "John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (26 August 1875 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. Buchan's 100 works in...

Richard HannayMajor-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour, is a fictional secret agent and army officer created by Scottish novelist John Buchan. In his autobiography,Memory Hold-the-Door, Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer War.[Novels]Hannay appears in several novels as a major character, including:1.The Thirty-Nine Step...

The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It first appeared as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in August and September 1915 before being published in book form in October that year by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations.The novel formed the basis for a number ...

One of the most exciting 'chase thrillers' ever published, and a huge influence not only on spy fiction, but on Hollywood as well, The 39 Steps is a book which has captured the imagination of audiences for decades. It was written by acclaimed Scottish author John Buchan, who inspired the writing of other great British novelists, including Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John le Carré. The 39 Steps remains his most famous work. It is the first of five novels featuring Richa...

The novel of international intrigue and adventure that set the standard for the modern spy thrillerOne May evening in 1914, an ordinary Londoner named Richard Hannay receives word of an anarchist plot to assassinate the prime minister of Greece. A few nights later, the eccentric American who revealed the conspiracy is found stabbed to death in Hannay's flat. With only the dead man's encrypted notes to guide him, Hannay must try to foil the assassination attempt whil...

Major General Sir Richard Hannay is the fictional secret agent created by writer and diplomat John Buchan, who was himself an Intelligence officer during the First World War. The strong and 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 and solv...

On the 1st July, 1916, 20,000 British troops lost their lives during the first day of the Somme.Artillery had barraged the German lines for seven days, but the Germans were heavily dug in and many shells failed to explode due to the wet ground.The bombardment signalled to the Germans that the British were coming, so once it had finished they emerged from their fortifications ready to face, and destroy, the enemy offensive.Published as a short work just a year after ...

Greenmantle is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character of Richard Hannay, first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being Mr Standfast (1919); Hannay's first and best-known adventure, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), is set in the period immediately preceding the war.[Literary significance and criticism]The book was very popular when ...

‘Every student of the seventeenth century in England must desire sooner or later to have his say about its greatest figure.So says John Buchan in the preface to this magnificent biography, in which he sets out to reshape the way the soldier and statesman is perceived.Born in 1599, Cromwell was a devout Puritan who, when the civil war broke out, quickly joined the Parliamentary forces.He led those forces to victory in battles that included Marston Moor and Naseby, an...