“Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps” by Ursula Buchan

I loved reading this. It is a fairly conventional biography of John Buchan written with aplomb by one of his grand-daughters, and it is really very interesting.

Like most people I only really know John Buchan as a writer of thrillers, notably the ‘Thirty-Nine Steps’ and ‘The Three Hostages’ which I read while at school. I was vaguely aware that he had been a Conservative Member of Parliament for a period and that he lived near to Oxford, but I had no knowledge at all of just how extraordinarily laden with achievement his life was.

Born into the family of a Church of Scotland Minister in 1875 he went on to write dozens of novels and short stories in all manner of genres, as well as memoirs, biographies, essay collections and works of history. He studied classics at Glasgow University and then at Oxford, becoming President of the Union and winning a slew of literary prizes. Already a published author on graduation he went on to have careers in magazine editing, publishing and colonial governance. He also led the main propaganda team in the Ministry of Information during the First World War. He was elected to Parliament in 1927 to represent the Scottish Universities, becoming a close confidante of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, resigning eight years later to become Governor General of Canada. He held the post in the late 1930s through the abdication crisis and the start of the Second World War, ploughing a careful path between avoiding political controversy and trying to influence public opinion in the USA in favour of some kind of participation in the War.

He also appears – in this account at any rate – to have been a thoroughly decent and generous man. The accusations of antisemitism sometimes levelled at him are pretty swiftly dismissed here and fairly effectively, JB emerging as a very hard-working, gifted, and deeply religious family man.

Beset by illness for much of his relatively short life (he died aged 64 while still serving as Governor General), the amount he packed in was extraordinary. He achieved as much as six people typically might. He knew all the leading political figures of his time, and the literary figures too, as well as church top-dogs and T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia). He might very well have gone on to be UK ambassador to the USA at a very vital time had he lived longer.

What an interesting life story. And one told here with affection and verve. A very good read.