Tag: john buchan

#BookReview The Island of Sheep by John Buchan #1936Club

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The Island of SheepAbout the Book

Twelve years on from the last novel in which he featured, Richard Hannay, now in his fifties, is called by an old oath to protect the son of a man he once knew, who is also heir to the secret of a great treasure. Helped by old friends, Sandy Arbuthnot, now Lord Clanroyden, and Lombard, the action takes place in England, Scotland and on the Island of Sheep.

Format: Hardcover (343 pages)    Publisher: Nelson
Publication date:  1962 [1936]      Genre: Adventure

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My Review

The Island of Sheep by John Buchan, first published in 1936 by Nelson, is  dedicated to Buchan’s son, Johnnie. The dedication reads “To J.N.S.B. who knows the Norlands and the ways of the wild geese”. In the book, Peter John, son of Mary and Richard Hannay, shares Johnnie’s interest in birds, nature and wild places.

The book opens with Hannay feeling a little too settled and comfortable in his life at Fosse Manor in the Oxfordshire countryside. Fosse Manor resembles Buchan’s own family home, Elsfield, and perhaps Hannay’s restlessness reflects Buchan’s own feelings as he contemplated his forthcoming role as Governor General of Canada.

The oft-quoted line from the classic film Casablanca – “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine” – comes to mind as Hannay has chance encounters with Lombard, an old friend from his days in Rhodesia, and shortly afterwards with Haraldsen, the son of the man to whom Hannay, Lombard and Hannay’s former comrade, Peter Pienaar  swore an oath that they would come to his aid should this ever be required.

Other characters from previous novels turn up including a villain from South America and Hannay’s old friend, Sandy Arbuthnot, who once again demonstrates the mastery of disguise for which he is renowned, although some suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader may be required in one particular case.

The story builds to a dramatic climax on the isolated Island of Sheep as there is a final reckoning between Haraldsen’s son and his allies, and the gang of baddies pursuing him. Peter John and Anna (Haraldsen’s daughter) play an important role in events and knowledge of the habits of wildlife also proves crucial.

The Island of Sheep is an engaging adventure set in some interesting locations.

In three words: Entertaining, action, adventure

Try something similar: The Dancing Floor by John Buchan (read my review here)

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John BuchanAbout the Author

John Buchan (1875 – 1940) was an author, poet, lawyer, publisher, journalist, war correspondent, Member of Parliament, University Chancellor, keen angler and family man.  He was ennobled and, as Lord Tweedsmuir, became Governor-General of Canada.  In this role, he signed Canada’s entry into the Second World War.   Nowadays he is probably best known – maybe only known – as the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps.  However, in his lifetime he published over 100 books: fiction, poetry, short stories, biographies, memoirs and history.

You can find out more about John Buchan, his life and literary output by visiting The John Buchan Society website.

buchan of the month 2019

Buchan of the Month: Introducing Augustus by John Buchan #ReadJB2019

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In honour of Nonfiction November, I’ve chosen John Buchan’s biography of the Roman Emperor Augustus as my Buchan of the Month. You can find out more about the project and my reading list for 2019 here. What follows is an introduction to Augustus.   I will be publishing my review of the book later this month.

AugustusBuchanAugustus was published by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK and by Houghton Mifflin in the US in October 1937.

Buchan (by this time, Lord Tweedsmuir) started work on the book soon after his arrival in Canada following his appointment as Governor-General. Janet Adam Smith, Buchan’s first biographer, records how when he had completed his official duties and ‘disposed of the day’s chores, he would turn at once to the biography of Augustus’. Buchan received long distance help with research for the book from two friends: Hugh Last, Professor of Ancient History at Oxford (where Buchan had studied) and Roberto Weiss. The latter looked out newly published material, checked references and later oversaw the book’s translation into Italian.

Professor Last was suitably impressed with the finished product, remarking that the book ‘puts us so-called experts as much in your debt for its demonstration of the way in which Augustus should be treated as it does the larger public’, going on to describe it as ‘by far the best general interpretation of its subject’. The book was greeted with approval by many other historians.

David Daniell praises Buchan as a painstaking historian and a ‘modern interpreter who had a powerful sense of the future’. Buchan himself was conscious of the parallels with contemporary events given he was working on the book at the same time as Europe was witnessing the rise of Mussolini and Hitler. In the preface to the book he writes: ‘The convulsions of our time may give an insight into the problems of the early Roman empire which was perhaps unattainable by scholars who lived in easier days‘. Buchan even sent a copy of Augustus to President Roosevelt, saying ‘I hope it may interest you for many of his problems are your own’.

At the end of the book, Buchan points out similarities between the two ages: ‘Once again the crust of civilization has grown thin, and beneath can be heard the muttering of primeval fires. Once again many accepted principles of government have been overthrown, and the world has become a laboratory where immature and feverish minds experiment with unknown forces.‘ (The concept of the thin crust of civilization was one Buchan had previously explored in his adventure novels, notably The Power-House.)

Despite its positive reception by historians, Augustus sold only 5,000 copies in the UK in the first year of its publication. By 1960, that figure had reached 36,000 boosted by the release of a cheap edition in 1942.

My Buchan of the Month for December will be the final Richard Hannay adventure, The Island of Sheep.

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)

buchan of the month 2019