„John Burnet of Barns” was Buchan’s first fully realised, full-length work of fiction. The author’s third novel is story of adventure, treachery and revenge, set in the Scottish Borders in the 17th century, telling of a young nobleman who sets out to gain an education abroad, only to find himself betrayed in his absence by his cousin. Not just a romance, but adventures of a Scottish gentleman around the Netherlands and the wildest highlands of Scotland to find himself, rega...
„Castle Gay” is the second of Buchan’s three Dickson McCunn books and is set in south west Scotland in the Dumfries and Galloway region in the 1920s. The plot revolves around the self-discovery of a media mogul named Craw, who is firstly the subject of mistaken identity and then the target of Balkan extremists who wish to use his newspapers to influence their political cause. Mr. Craw’s journey is overseen by Jaikie Galt, one of the young scamps in „Huntingtower”, who is no...
John Buchan’s own favourite among his novels, in which he dealt with the hypocrisy which can lie close to the surface of apparently god-fearing respectability. The story is set in the Scottish Borders during the civil war and the main character is the new young minister in a small village. The minister wrestles with his own christian faith as opposed to the severe presbyterianism of the Kirk and also has to deal with a pagan coven, a wounded soldier from Montrose’s defeated...
„The Magic Walking Stick” is a children’s short story by John Buchan. Our hero is a teenage boy who buys a walking stick from a beggar – a magic walking stick that allows the boy to visit many places at his command... It is a fantastical story about a pair of magical walking sticks; one that will cease to function if it is used for any practical purpose, and another that will cease to function if it isn’t. Unfortunately, our protagonist doesn’t know which one he possesses. ...
Edward Leithen is a young British lawyer who learns that one of his Oxford contemporaries, Charles Pitt-Heron, has just disappeared. Leithen learns from Pitt-Heron’s wife that he has been forced to flee. But a series of strange events that follow Pitt-Heron’s disappearance convinces Leithen that he is dealing with a sinister secret society. His suspicions begin to center on a wealthy, well-known, and intelligent businessman, who reveals himself to Leithen as an ardent anarc...
We wonder that so great a man as Abraham Lincoln should spring from humble people – but who knows what his more distant ancestry might have been? In a series of dramatic chapters, Mr. Buchan tells what he imagines to have been the ancestry of Lincoln. „The Path Of The King” is a series of short vignettes, loosely connected, starting in Scotland before the Normans arrived and involving the people who where in conflict with their Scandinavian cousins. It ends in America with ...
Vernon Milbourne, orphaned since childhood and haunted by a recurring dream, is friends with the protective lawyer and MP Sir Edward Leithen. An Aegean cruise takes them to the mysterious island of Plakos, where Vernon is fascinated by the island’s myths. Local superstitions turn to menace as Vernon’s encounter with a beautiful woman results in obsession and adventure. „The Dancing Floor” centres on a young English woman, Kore Arabin, who inherits a house on a remote Greek ...
