Trivia / John Buchan

• And You Thought It Was Real: Buchan's use of framing devices, especially of the 'found manuscript' variety, has on occasion led people to assume that some of his historical fiction may be a depiction of a Real Life event. A good example is his short story "The Company of the Marjolaine", in which a group of Americans travelling in Italy in the 1780s try to get an elderly Bonnie Prince Charlie to agree to become the King of the then-newly-independent United States of America. After reading it, an American businessman wrote to Buchan asking to see the letters mentioned in the preface, as he reckoned that one of the Americans was an ancestor of his — and was rather displeased (and presumably embarrassed) to learn that the story was pure fiction.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Of his books, Buchan's favourite was Witch Wood, an historical novel set in the Scottish Lowlands at the time of the Civil War. Buchan had been researching a biography of the Scottish Royalist leader Lord Montrose and wanted to explore the issue of religious tolerance. Critics have tended to agree that it's his best novel.
• Defictionalization: Woodilee, the village where Witch Wood is set, was inspired by the real-life village of Broughton in Tweeddale. It is now the name of a newly-built street in Broughton — the building previously on the site was the Green Mantle Hotel.
• Referenced by...: Russell Thorndike dedicated Doctor Syn on the High Seas, the fourth Doctor Syn novel to be published, to Buchan — "under whose auspices Doctor Syn was first published". Thomas Nelson, the publishing company of which Buchan was a director, had indeed published the first novel in that series, Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh, in 1915 (coincidentally, the year in which The Thirty-Nine Steps was first published). Curiously, though, the dedication reads: "To the memory of John Buchan", even though Doctor Syn on the High Seas was first published in 1936, when Buchan was still alive.
• Similarly Named Works: Buchan's short story "The Last Crusade", which first appeared in The Runagates Club and can be found in various short story compilations, has nothing to do with the Indiana Jones film.
• What Could Have Been: Alfred Hitchcock considered making a film adaptation of Greenmantle on more than one occasion. At one point, he wanted to cast Cary Grant as Richard Hannay. Unfortunately, Buchan's estate wanted too much money for the screen rights and the project never materialised.
• Write What You Know: Quite a few examples here.
  • Biblical references abound in Buchan's works - appropriately, given that his father was a Free Church of Scotland minister.
  • For Prester John, an adventure set in South Africa, Buchan drew on his experiences as a colonial administrator in that country in the aftermath of the Boer War. This also informs on Richard Hannay's Southern African background.
  • Many of Buchan's adventures are set or partly set in his native Scotland — examples include The Thirty-Nine Steps, Huntingtower, John Macnab and Witch Wood. Many of his characters are Scottish (Edward Leithen, Dickson McCunn) or were at least born in Scotland before growing up elsewhere (Richard Hannay).
  • A few Buchan stories are located in the Cotswolds, where Buchan himself bought a manor house after the First World War (as, incidentally, does Richard Hannay — and that's where we find him at the start of The Three Hostages). Notably, The Blanket of the Dark and Midwinter are set in the Cotswolds, respectively during the reign of Henry VIII and at the time of the Jacobite Rebellion of '45.
  • John Blenkiron, the American spymaster in Greenmantle and Mr. Standfast, is afflicted by a duodenal ulcer, something from which Buchan himself suffered for many years. Blenkiron eventually has an operation which successfully relieves him of this ailment; sadly, the same was never true for his creator.
  • A keen mountaineer, Buchan incorporated this into several of his stories, most notably Mr. Standfast and the end of The Three Hostages.
  • Buchan's love of shooting and fishing can be seen in John Macnab, the tale of three successful but bored friends (one of whom is a Cabinet minister) who decide to turn to poaching. Being sporting types, they forewarn the owners or tenants of three Scottish estates that they will poach a salmon or a stag from their land and return it to them undetected.
  • In Greenmantle, Hannay and friends are trying to thwart Germany's plans for Central Asia - the main aim of which is to start a jihad against the British Empire. In real life, German agents were at work in this part of the world during the First World War with this very intention. Buchan, who had connections with the intelligence world thanks to his wartime propaganda work, was evidently aware of this.
  • One of the characters in John Macnab is running for Parliament, while The Gap in the Curtain deals in part with the experiences of an up-and-coming politician. Buchan was a Member of Parliament between 1927 and 1935.