beyond the thirty nine steps a life of john buchan

His books, especially The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle, are literary heirlooms, passed down from one generation to the next. John Buchan (1875-1940) has proved more enduring than most of his contemporaries. Nonetheless, this lays a line towards a reimagination of Buchan.By Ursula Buchan, Bloomsbury, 492pp, £25/$28 She rightly puts his faith at the centre of the book, but a small mention of The Kirk In Scotland would have been welcome. Although Ursula Buchan has done an admirable piece of work here, part of me grieved that one of John’s books went unmentioned (although he did pen a heck of a lot). Although the title seems to indicate a deeper reading of the other works by Buchan, the real interest here is in his work in the world. The great strength of this book is to make Buchan not just the writer of 'shockers,' but a man whose influence helped change government policy. I was surprised that the fleeting references to Buchan’s wife’s depression were not expanded upon. Indeed, being born 13 years after Buchan’s death, the author would have nothing but hearsay and family tradition to go by. One might have thought this bloodline would allow a few piquant anecdotes, but not so, except for a rather touching account of her grandmother in old age. There are things that I learned and things that I had no concern in learning. Great men may be a privilege to know, but without redeeming vices they are very dull to read about.

praise heaped as unsparingly as this blots out nuance and chokes off interest. His biographer has not stinted in ferreting out every wonderful thing ever said about him. But aside from a slight case of vanity (after the war he petitioned the colonial office for an honor and was turned down-by Winston Churchill), the man was more or less a paragon. In a life apparently unshadowed by scandal or dishonor, what might have lent the book a dash of vinegar was some deep-lying flaw in JB’s character. Sadly, that equation works out mostly to the reader’s disadvantage: her love, our labor. She has paid him a due that would make her illustrious forebear proud-a labor of love.

Ursula Buchan.has made efforts to animate this new biography of 'JB,' as he was known, has read the work with impeccable care (more than 100 books) and traipsed in his far-flung steps around the colonies (South Africa, Canada) where he pursued an administrative career.

Beyond the thirty nine steps a life of john buchan