Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 4 on 9/9/2002.

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John Buchan's classic steps

Gerald Warner gives an overview of the life and works of scottish novelist john buchan, who rose from obscurity on the merit of his talent

If ever there was a classic example of a Scots “lad o’ pairts”, promoted from obscurity to fame by his own talents, it was surely John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. As a writer of thrillers and serious literature, poet, politician and Governor-General of Canada, he epitomised the achievements of the generation of late Victorian Scots from which he sprang.

Born in 1875, the son of a Free Church minister, his boyhood alternated between Fife and the Borders, where he spent his summers. The three great influences on his childhood were a benevolent strain of Calvinism, books and the Borders landscape.

After attending Hutcheson’s Grammar School and Glasgow University, he toyed with the possibility of making a living by sheep-farming, like his maternal uncles, but decided instead to try for a scholarship to Brasenose College, Oxford. He was admitted to read classics and the men with whom he mixed provided some of the inspiration for the future heroes of his novels – notably Auberon (“Bron”) Herbert (later Lord Lucas), the real-life model for Sandy Arbuthnot, the intrepid British intelligence agent in Greenmantle and similar Buchan thrillers.

In 1901, Buchan was called to the Bar, but instead of embarking upon a legal career, he became private secretary to Lord Milner, the High Commissioner for South Africa. The Boer War had just ended and Buchan was involved in the work of reconstruction for the next two years. From this experience derived the African interest in some of his nov.....

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By Gerald Warner

Section : Scottish Literature

Page number : 54