My last Buchan of the Month for 2019 is The Island of Sheep, the fifth and final John Buchan novel to feature Richard Hannay, hero of The Thirty-Nine Steps. You can find out more about the project and my reading list for 2019 here. What follows is an introduction to The Island of Sheep. I will be publishing my review of the book later this month.
The Island of Sheep was published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton on 25th July 1936. It had been published by Houghton Mifflin in the US under the title The Man from the Norlands two days earlier. Buchan finished writing the book shortly before his departure to Canada to take up the post of Governor-General.
The book is set in the Norlands (or Faeroe Islands), a place in which John Buchan and his son, Johnnie, had spent a fortnight in 1932. Janet Adam Smith describes The Island of Sheep as ‘Johnnie B’s book’ noting that it is dedicated to him and, in her words, ‘is full of Johnnie’s enthusiasm for birds and wild places’. Richard Hannay’s thirteen year old son, Peter John, who features in the book is clearly inspired by Johnnie, a keen naturalist like Buchan. Adam Smith points out most of the significant moments in the book involve wild life and knowledge of their habits – including pink geese! She also sees a theme of the book as ‘the middle-aged keeping – or recovering – their zest for life’.
David Daniell agrees that Peter John is the true hero of the book, along with Anna, daughter of Haraldsen, the son of an old friend of Hannay’s who approaches him for help, and ‘the birds and whales and Pict-like Norsemen of the climax’. The book also features the return of a villain from an earlier book and of Hannay’s friend, Sandy Arbuthnot.
The Island of Sheep sold over 10,000 copies in the US and, in the UK, combined sales of the Hodder & Stoughton and Nelson editions up to 1960 totalled 122,000. The paperback editions, published by Pan and Penguin from 1952 and 1956 respectively, contributed another 121,000 sales by 1965.
Look out for a new Buchan of the Month list for 2020.
Sources:
Janet Adam Smith, John Buchan: A Biography (OUP, 1985 [1965])
David Daniell, The Interpreter’s House: A Critical Assessment of John Buchan (Nelson, 1975)
Kenneth Hillier and Michael Ross, The First Editions of John Buchan: A Collector’s Illustrated Biography (Avonworld, 2008)
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