The Thirty-Nine Steps

Richard Hannay is thoroughly bored with London. Then a murder is commited in his flat. 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.

John Buchan (1875-1940) was born in Perth, Scotland and educated at Oxford where he published five books and won several awards, including one for poetry. He went on to be a barrister, a member of parliament, a soldier, a publisher, a historical biographer, and - in 1935 - he became the Govenor-General of Canada. Today he is best remembered as the author of his perennially popular adventure novels.


Sir John Keegan is a world-renowned historian of the First World War. His books include The First World War (Pimlico), A History of Warfare (Pimlico), and a biography of Winston Churchill (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, November 2003).