Writers' portraits - John Buchan

    Sir John Buchan, 1st. Baron Tweedsmuir (1875-1940), bust by Thomas John Clapperton,

15th. Governor General of Canada, photographic portrait (1937) by Yousuf Karsh.

    Although John Buchan is famous for his adventure novels such as The 39 Steps and Greenmantle, a friend who publishes his work rates Witch Wood (Buchan's own favourite, apparently) as one of his best and says it would make a great subject for a book group discussion. I can't comment as I've still not read him at all, but though we're told not to judge a book by its cover, and by extension, perhaps, an author by his looks, that noble profile and air of seriousness would certainly draw me to the man's works.

    I've been looking for a recent biography of John Buchan - in vain, it seems - but he does have an entry in John Sutherland's Lives of the Novelists: A History of Fiction in 294 Lives, a book I have my eye on. Diplomat, journalist, lawyer, politician, novelist, biographer ... quite enough for this lesser mortal to hold him in awe. "It's a great life, if you don't weaken," he wrote; I see no sign of weakness in that face.

Comments

[ChrisCross53]

Oh, how strange, I've got Witch Wood - I came across a reference to it and downloaded it out of curiosity, because I'd only heard of 39 Steps, but I haven't read it yet... currently engrossed in Miss Hargreaves... and trying to get into The Fountain Overflows...

[Cornflower]

Miss Hargreaves is fun, and I think it's fair to say The Fountain ... takes a bit of getting into!

[Barbara MacLeod]

Re. biography of Buchan: I will ask around.

A thought: it strikes me that Alexander McCall Smith might own such a book or know where to locate one!

[Lyn]

I also have Witch Wood downloaded (haven't read it yet) because I posted a poem by the Marquis of Montrose on my blog, then read C V Wedgwood's biography of Montrose & someone commented on the post & recommended WW. I've read several of Buchan's adventure novels & I enjoy his sister, O Douglas's, novels. If only there was enough time to read all the books recommended to us that lead on from books we've already read...

[B R Wombat]

I read Witch Wood a few years ago and know I enjoyed it, though I must admit I don't remember many plot details - age is to blame, not Buchan.

[Erika]

John Buchan's wife, Susan, Lady Tweedsmuir, has written on John in various places. There is a nice account in The Edwardian Lady" of how she first met his family --very modest, pawky and Scottish, while she came from privileged upper class England. Her own, very low key novels are infinitely better than his but not well known. Try "Cousin Harriet", the first of a trilogy which catches the end of the 19th Century in provincial, titled England, like a fly in amber. I have re-read it at least twice with growing pleasure each time.

[Erika]

I have been able to run down only 1 review of "Cousin Harriet" on Amazon Books
A reader:
>>Writing in the 1950s, Lady Tweedsmuir sets her novel in the 1870s, but one is most closely reminded of Jane Austen (Cousin Harriet's favourite novelist, so the author must have had her in mind) who wrote in and about the first decades of the nineteenth century. The book is enormously enjoyable: charming, gripping, feel-good, with an Austenesque happy ending and its feet firmly on the ground. Austen could not have got away with the explicit situation around which the novel revolves, either in her day or for many decades; but she, like Trollope and Dickens, knew all about the seamy side of life in her time.
Lady Tweedsmuir hasn't quite Austen's elegance and wit, but she is a worthy disciple. I read this book in one sitting and finished it feeling more happy and satisfied than a book has left me for a long time<<

It is long overdue for reprinting in my opinion.

[GeraniumCat]

Witchwood is tremendous! I've downloaded it on to my Kindle recently to re-read, because I can't lay my hands on my print copy. But I do recommend it, although I think Sick Heart River may be his best, myself. I've only read The Edwardian Country House (I think it was called) by Lady Tweedsmuir, and wish I had a copy. Shall certainly try Cousin Harriet.

[Erika]

I am being given a copy of "John Buchan: the Prebyterian Cavalier", written by David Godine. Lots of dirt cheap copies are available through ADDALL.com

So now I know of one other person who has read Sick Heart River"! I agree that it is one of his very best. I'd say that "John McNab" is up there too--very different and pretty funny.

[Barbara MacLeod]

No biography, but I found the following in Caledonia Books, Glasgow today:

[1] John Buchan by His Wife and Friends , Hodder & Stoughton, 1947, hardback.

[2] Unforgettable, Unforgotten , by Anna Buchan (his sister, O. Douglas), Hodder & Stoughton, 1945, hardback, first edition.

[Barbara MacLeod]

Oops ... that should have been Thistle Books in Otago Street, Kelvinbridge area.

[Cornflower]

Wonderful!

[Cornflower]

I so agree, Lyn.

[Cornflower]

Mr. C. has just requested it from the library, so with any luck we might get a post on it out of him soon.

[Cornflower]

Thankyou so much for this information, Erika.

[Cornflower]

Yes, this post is opening up all sorts of reading trails.

[Ruth M.]

Buchan gets considerable mention in Adam Hochschild's To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion 1914-1918, which is well worth reading in its own right. It's a fascinating, fast-moving history of those years with primary emphasis on those who supported the war and those who opposed it, as well as those who executed it.

[Cornflower]

Many thanks, Ruth.

[Rebecca]

I enjoyed reading 39 Steps, but it was certainly not great literature--more like the current smash, Hunger Games--lots of plot and action, not too much more, somewhat like a TinTin story for grownups. I thought he was a one-hit wonder!