John Buchan

'Plakos is a strange place, for the tides of civilisation and progress seem to have left it high and dry. It is a relic of old days, full of wild beliefs and pagan habits.' Young Englishwoman Kore Arabin has inherited a remote Greek island, Plakos, from her unscrupulous father, who was reviled by the locals. The superstitious islanders blame Kore for every minor mishap and natural disaster, and they are about to sacrifice her as a witch in the sacred ground called 'The Dancing Floor'. Sir Edward Leithen and his acquaintance Vernon Milburne must save her. The Dancing Floor is one of Buchan's most intriguing novels – a love story, a dramatic thriller and a tale of the clash between paganism and Christianity. With an introduction by Robert Hardy. This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society.

'For three minutes you will turn your eyes inward – into the darkness of the mind which I have taught you to make. Then – I will give the sign – you will look at the paper. There you will see words written, but only for one second. Bend all your powers to remember them.' What begins as a welcome, if slightly dull, weekend at his friend Lady Flambard's house in the Costwolds becomes for Sir Edward Leithen something altogether more intriguing. A fellow guest – the brilliant Professor Moe – enlists the help of Leithen and his companions in an experiment. If they do as he says, each will get a glimpse a year into the future in the pages of The Times. One of Buchan's most unusual novels, The Gap in the Curtain is a tense tale of unexpected from the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps. With an introduction by Stuart Kelly. This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society.

Prester John is a adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It tells the story of a young Scotsman named David Crawfurd and his adventures in South Africa, where a Zulu uprising under the charismatic black minister John Laputa is tied to the medieval legend of Prester John. South Africa, 1900. After his father dies, nineteen-year-old David Crawfurd is sent off to South Africa to earn his living as a storekeeper in the back of beyond. A strange encounter on the journey suggests that dark deeds and treacherous intrigues are afoot - all bound up with the mysterious primeval kingdom of Prester John. Written as a boys' adventure story and set mostly in South Africa (where Buchan had worked), "Prester John" was published in 1910 when Buchan was 35. It's a fast-moving thriller in the style of Robert Louis Stevenson and Rider Haggard.

Greenmantle is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character of Richard Hannay. Hannay is called in to investigate rumours of an uprising in the Muslim world, and undertakes a perilous journey through enemy territory to meet his friend Sandy in Constantinople. Once there, he and his friends must thwart the Germans' plans to use religion to help them win the war, climaxing at the battle of Erzurum. The book opens in November 1915, with Hannay and his friend Sandy convalescing from wounds received at the Battle of Loos. Sir Walter Bullivant, a senior intelligence officer, summons Hannay to the Foreign Office. Bullivant briefs Hannay on the political situation in the Middle East, suggesting that the Germans and their Turkish allies are plotting to create a Muslim uprising, that will throw the Middle East, India and North Africa into turmoil. Bullivant proposes that Hannay investigate the rumours, following a clue left on a slip of paper with the words "Kasredin", "cancer" and "v. I" written by Bullivant's son, a spy recently killed in the region. Despite misgivings, Hannay accepts the challenge, and picks Sandy to help him. Bullivant says that American John Blenkiron will be useful. The three meet, ponder their clues, and head to Constantinople. Starting on 17 November, they plan to meet at a hostelry exactly two months later, going each by his own route - Blenkiron travelling through Germany as an observer, Sandy travelling through Asia Minor, using his Arab contacts, and Hannay goes to neutral Lisbon under a Boer guise. There, he meets by chance an old comrade, Boer Peter Pienaar, and the two, posing as anti-British exiles itching to fight for the Germans, are recruited by a German agent. They enter Germany via the Netherlands. Where they meet the powerful and sinister Colonel Ulric von Stumm, and persuade him they can help persuade the Muslims to join the Germans' side. Hannay has several more adventures, meeting famed mining engineer Herr Gaudian, hears of the mysterious Hilda von Einem, and meets the Kaiser.

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The Thirty Nine Steps, John Buchan's groundbreaking espionage thriller featuring spy Richard Hannay, has been called the first great espionage novel. It has been embraced by each new generation and shows no sign of losing popularity. Richard Hannay arrives in London on the eve of World War I, where he meets an American agent seeking help in stopping a political assassination. Before long, Hannay finds himself in possession of a little black book that holds the key to the conspiracy - and on the run from both the police and members of a mysterious organization that will stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden. Considered by many to be one of the greatest adventure novels of all time, "The Thirty-Nine Steps" is Scottish author John Buchan's most successful work. Published in 1915 and set during the early days of the First World War, it is the first of Buchan's stories of Richard Hannay, a brave and honorable yet unremarkable gentleman, who finds himself mixed up in extraordinary circumstances. In "The Thirty-Nine Steps" Hannay is unintentionally drawn into a deadly plot to undermine the British war effort and assassinate the Greek Premier. Framed for murder and now a fugitive from the law, Hannay must race against time to try to stay one step ahead of his deadly pursuers and do what he can to stop the plot. Thrust into a world of spies, intrigue, and danger, the ordinary Hannay rises to the occasion and becomes a resourceful and loyal hero. Thrilling, intelligent, and clever, "The Thirty-Nine Steps" was popular and widely influential when first published and is credited with being one of the first "man on the run" stories. This classic is an exciting adventure of mystery and espionage that will thrill and delight readers both young and old. The book has formed the basis for a number of film adaptations, notably: Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 version; a 1959 color remake; a 1978 version which is perhaps most faithful to the novel; and a 2008 version for British television.

I sat and thought for a bit, for the name "Bullivant' carried me back eighteen months to the hot summer before the war. I had not seen the man since, though I had read about him in the papers. For more than a year I had been a busy battalion officer, with no other thought than to hammer a lot of raw stuff into good soldiers. I had succeeded pretty well, and there was no prouder man on earth than Richard Hannay when he took his Lennox Highlanders over the parapets on that glorious and bloody 25th day of September. Loos was no picnic, and we had had some ugly bits of scrapping before that, but the worst bit of the campaign I had seen was a tea-party to the show I had been in with Bullivant before the war started. Major Hannay's narrative of this affair has been published under the title of The Thirty-nine Steps. The sight of his name on a telegram form seemed to change all my outlook on life. I had been hoping for the command of the battalion, and looking forward to being in at the finish with Brother Boche. But this message jerked my thoughts on to a new road. There might be other things in the war than straightforward fighting. Why on earth should the Foreign Office want to see an obscure Major of the New Army, and want to see him in double quick time?

As war looms in Europe, Richard Hannay returns from Rhodesia to his home in London. His neighbor, an American freelance spy named Franklin Scudder, claims to know of an assassination plot to destabilize Europe. When Hannay finds Scudder dead in his flat he is drawn into a fast-paced labyrinthine adventure that takes him from the hills of Scotland to an unassuming location by the sea. The progenitor of the classic man-on-the-run thriller, The Thirty-Nine Steps first appeared as a serial adventure story in Blackwood's Magazine from August to September 1915 and in book form in October of that year. Since its publication it has never been out of print and has been frequently adapted for television, radio, theater, and film, including, quite famously, a 1935 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Ein bler alter Schurke namens Albinus, sowie Troth, der Sohn eines der anderen Schurken, planen zusammen einen Rachefeldzug gegen die Nachkommen ihres fr heren Gegners Haraldsen. Sie versammeln eine Bande von Hohlk pfen um sich und versuchen, Haraldsens Sohn um sein betr chtliches Verm gen zu erpressen. Haraldsen Junior, ein junger Witwer, verl sst das von seinem Vater auf der Schafinsel, die der Autor Norl nder nennt, gebaute Herrenhaus, bringt seine dreizehnj hrige Tochter Anna in ein Internat und taucht in England unter. Aus Angst um die eigene Sicherheit und die seiner Tochter beschlie t er, sich an die alten Kameraden seines Vaters aus seiner Afrikazeit, Lombard und Hannay, zu wenden. Hannay ist durch einen fr heren Schwur verpflichtet, Haraldsens Sohn zu sch tzen, weil er das Geheimnis eines gro en Schatzes geerbt hat. Ein fesselnder Thriller von einem Meister des Fachs.

John Buchan (1875-1940), author of over 100 books including The Thirty-Nine Steps, was a stealth writer of supernatural and Weird fiction. From the beginning of his career to his last works, he brought supernatural elements into his narratives to test his characters and thrill his readers. His 1932 novel The Gap in the Curtain was his last full-length work devoted to exploring a supernatural theme: if you were able to see one year into the future, what would you do with that foreknowledge? And what would it do to you? The novel tells the story of five country-house guests who are trained by the ailing Professor Moe, an Einsteinian mathematician who has devised a way of seeing into the future. These five guests gain one piece of knowledge from the experiment, and have to decide how to act on it. The episodes vary from high drama to social comedy, and use Buchan's skill in writing political intrigue and adventure abroad. This is a novel that showcases Buchan's talents as a storyteller, and is a thoroughly satisfying read. The Introduction is by Kate Macdonald, author of John Buchan. The Mystery Companion and many other works on Buchan's writing.

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The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. Richard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his life in London. But then a murder is committed in his flat, just days after a chance encounter with an American who had told him about an assassination plot which could have dire international consequences. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland where he will need all his courage and ingenuity to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. Can Richard Hannay save himself by solving the mystery of the 39 Steps? The book was hugely influential, and remains Buchan's most famous work.

Richard Hannay, a restless hero, is set to show the integrity of the ordinary man who stands in defence of his country. Buchan's terrific yarn excelled as a Hitchcock movie of the same name, and inspired all subsequent spy thrillers, including the much later incarnation of Fleming's suave James Bond. The book plays on fears of invasion, and turns the simple view of good versus evil into a page-turning adventure for the ages. This edition also features the second in Buchan's series of Hannay adventures, Greemantle. FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and myth, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and robots, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales, ancient and modern gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.