Best Selling Books by John Buchan

The Magic Walking Stick is a children''s short story by John Buchan. It tells the story of a teenage boy who buys a walking stick from a beggar - a magic walking stick that allows the boy to visit many places at his command...

The Island of Sheep is a 1936 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, the last of his novels to focus on his characters Richard Hannay and Sandy Arbuthnot.It was published in the United States under the title The Man from the Norlands.

The Path of the King is a 1921 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, presented as a loosely coupled series of short stories.

From The Watcher by the Threshold: I have told this story to many audiences with diverse results, and once again I take my reputation in my hands and brave the perils. To the common circle of my friends it was a romance for a winter''s fire, and I, the most prosaic of men, was credited with a fancy. . . . One man only heard me with true appreciation; but he was a wandering spirit with an ear open to marvels, and I hesitate to advance his security. He received it simply, saying that God was great, and I cannot improve upon his comment. Thus begins Buchan''s unnerving tale of terror at the edge of the Scottish Highlands. Buchan - a man more remembered for mysteries and war stories - was a real hand with horror, and this 1902 compilation displays his facility nicely.

WWI spy Richard Hannay is called in to investigate rumours of an uprising in the Muslim world, and undertakes a perilous journey through enemy territory to meet up with his friend Sandy in Constantinople.

The one and only major naval engagement of the First World War stands alone in the history of Warfare afloat. It is a curious battle to study as a German tactical victory, but rather a British strategic victory. Colonel Buchan wrote his volume study of the battle from an enviable position as a high ranking intelligence officer, having access to much of the detail from the allied side. He divided the action into four distinct phases as the battle ships and cruisers manoeuvred for position and the shells rained among them. One of the finest British authors of the age, he also wrote copious numbers of books on the First World War, of particular note the 24 volume "Nelson''s" history.

This modern fairy-tale is also the gripping adventure story about Dickson McCunn, a respectable, newly retired grocer who finds himself in the thick of a plot involving the kidnapping of a Russian princess held prisoner in the rambling mansion, Huntingtower. Here, Buchan introduces some of his best-loved characters and paints a remarkable picture of a man rejuvenated by joining much younger comrades in a fight against tyranny and fear.

There is talk of war in Europe; it is May, 1914, and Richard Hannay, a Scot, is starting afresh in London after time spent in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He is gregarious and talks to strangers in passing, but one seems to attach himself more than the average casual acquaintance. Franklin P. Scudder is an American who is convinced that the world is about to erupt into war. He tells Hannay that he is actually dead, which of course intrigues Hannay, because it is not often one finds oneself talking to a dead man. Scudder elaborates and tells Hannay that he is a freelance spy and has faked his own death in order to be able to conduct his investigations more safely. He tells of a group of Germans chasing him, and Hannay offers to allow him to stay at his flat for a little while. Unfortunately this does not seem to throw the Germans off the scent; one evening, a man who lives in Hannay''s building is murdered, and a couple of days after that, Hannay returns home to his flat to find that Hannay too has been murdered, stabbed in he heart.

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The Island of Sheep is a 1936 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, the last of his novels to focus on his characters Richard Hannay and Sandy Arbuthnot. It was published in the United States under the title The Man from the Norlands.

The Three Hostages is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels by Scottish author John Buchan, first published in 1924 by Hodder & Stoughton, London.Hannay had previously appeared in The Thirty Nine Steps 1915, his most famous adventure in which he battles German spies across England and Scotland, and two books about his activities during the First World War, Greenmantle 1916 and Mr Standfast 1919.

What is the true root of royal blood? A band of gold belonging to a young Viking prince is passed from generation to generation. Follow this convoluted, yet heroic, path to the making of one of history''s greatest leaders.

I have taken in hand to write this, the history of my life, not without much misgiving of heart; for my memory at the best is a bad one, and of many things I have no clear remembrance. And the making of tales is an art unknown to me, so he who may read must not look for any great skill in the setting down. Yet I am emboldened to the work, for my life has been lived in stirring times and amid many strange scenes which may not wholly lack interest for those who live in quieter days. And above all, I am desirous that they of my family should read of my life and learn the qualities both good and bad which run in the race, and so the better be able to resist the evil and do the good.John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, was a British novelist and Unionist politician who, between 1935 and 1940, served as the Governor General of Canada. He was born and primarily educated in Scotland, and further schooled in England, obtaining a degree in Literae Humaniores, and befriending a number of influential future writers while studying at the University of Oxford. After a brief career in law, Buchan began writing and his political and diplomatic career, serving as a private secretary to the colonial administrator of various colonies in South Africa, and eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort following the outbreak of the First World War. Once back in civilian life, Buchan was elected the Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities, but spent most of his time on his writing career. He is the author of The Thirty-Nine Steps and other adventure fiction.

I had just finished breakfast and was filling my pipe when I got Bullivant''s telegram. It was at Furling, the big country house in Hampshire where I had come to convalesce after Loos, and Sandy, who was in the same case, was hunting for the marmalade. I flung him the flimsy with the blue strip pasted down on it, and he whistled. ''Hullo, Dick, you''ve got the battalion. Or maybe it''s a staff billet. You''ll be a blighted brass-hat, coming it heavy over the hard-working regimental officer. And to think of the language you''ve wasted on brass-hats in your time!'' I sat and thought for a bit, for the name ''Bullivant'' carried me back eighteen months to the hot summer before the war. I had not seen the man since, though I had read about him in the papers. For more than a year I had been a busy battalion officer, with no other thought than to hammer a lot of raw stuff into good soldiers. I had succeeded pretty well, and there was no prouder man on earth than Richard Hannay when he took his Lennox Highlanders over the parapets on that glorious and bloody 25th day of September. Loos was no picnic, and we had had some ugly bits of scrapping before that, but the worst bit of the campaign I had seen was a tea-party to the show I had been in with Bullivant before the war started... The sight of his name on a telegram form seemed to change all my outlook on life. I had been hoping for the command of the battalion, and looking forward to being in at the finish with Brother Boche. But this message jerked my thoughts on to a new road. There might be other things in the war than straightforward fighting. Why on earth should the Foreign Office want to see an obscure Major of the New Army, and want to see him in double-quick time? ''I''m going up to town by the ten train,'' I announced; ''I''ll be back in time for dinner.'' ''Try my tailor,'' said Sandy. ''He''s got a very nice taste in red tabs. You can use my name.'' An idea struck me. ''You''re pretty well all right now. If I wire for you, will you pack your own kit and mine and join me?'' ''Right-o! I''ll accept a job on your staff if they give you a corps. If so be as you come down tonight, be a good chap and bring a barrel of oysters from Sweeting''s.''

In this epic tale of a family torn asunder by a long-lasting feud, renowned action-adventure author John Buchan spins an engrossing account of two cousins locked in conflict - and the horrible toll that their bad blood begets. In the wake of the ultimate betrayal, will the Burnet clan ever be able to bridge the chasm that has been created?