The Thirty-Nine Steps

Written by John Buchan

Narrated by Michael Ward

The first of five novels by Buchan featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations, the 39 Steps pits the adventurer against German agents in a tense backdrop of a Europe weeks away from the first world war. The story places him in a desperate game of cat and mouth that will lead Hannay from his Portland Place home to the highlands of Scotland, back to London, and to a sleepy holiday village on the coast, where all is not as it seems...

Narrated by Michael Ward.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Ward
• Release date: May 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9781982771744

John Buchan

John Buchan was a Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet and novelist. He published nearly 30 novels and seven collections of short stories. He was born in Perth, an eldest son, and studied at Glasgow and Oxford. In 1901 he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and a private secretary to the High Commissioner for South Africa. In 1907 he married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor and they subsequently had four children. After spells as a war correspondent, Lloyd George's Director of Information and Conservative MP, Buchan moved to Canada in 1935. He served as Governor General there until his death in 1940. Hew Strachan is Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford; his research interests include military history from the 18th century to date, including contemporary strategic studies, but with particular interest in the First World War and in the history of the British Army.