Movie makers seemed to love this book and there have been several film and television versions, beginning with that of Alfred Hitchcock in 1935. Buchan grabs the reader from the beginning in this famous 'man-on-the-run' action story, and I read it recently on a long bus trip. But people remember not his historical writing or his public career, but his adventure thrillers, such as The Thirty-Nine Steps. After several careers, he ended by accepting a peerage as Lord Tweedsmuir and serving as governor-general of Canada until his death in 1940. Born the son of a Free Church of Scotland minister, Buchan won his way to Oxford, became a recognised scholar in history, and wrote about 100 books. The book, and the many films and TV adaptations of it, is The Thirty-Nine Steps.īuchan certainly did not weaken, despite being a life-long martyr to duodenal ulcers, which often laid him low and prevented him serving in the army during the war. He wrote in a novel entitled Mr Standfast: 'It's a great life – if you don't weaken!' And everyone seems to have heard of the famous thriller he wrote almost exactly a century ago, just as World War I was coming to the boil.

But lots of people seem to know the wry comment on life that he coined long ago. All in all, a very well done film, well made, engaging and mostly faithful.Many people look blank when I mention John Buchan.

Robert Powell has both the bearing and charm for Richard Hannay, Karen Dotrice is a likable female interest and David Warner is an ever charismatic presence. If there is one scene though that I prefer over the Hitchcock film, it's the climax, which I found thrilling and not as rushed. The script is intelligent and does feel as though it's flowing naturally, and the story is securely paced and the suspense is in equal measure with Hitchcock's like with Hannay's escape from the train. The locations look beautiful and are very atmospherically photographed, while the score adds much to the often thrilling and suspenseful tone.

The pace sags in the middle perhaps, but this is a very well done film both as an adaptation and on its own merits. This version is better however than the well done if slightly flat 1959 film and the awful 2008 TV adaptation. Of the four though on its own, I do prefer Hitchcock's 1935 film, for how well made and directed it is and how suspenseful it is. Although it is not 100% faithful to the book, it is the most faithful in spirit of the four versions I've seen.

The thirty nine steps book summary