The 39 steps

Selected as one of the 100 best novels in English in The GuardianRecently returned from South Africa, adventurer Richard Hannay is bored with life, but after a chance encounter with an American who informs him of an assassination plot and is then promptly murdered in Hannay’s London flat, he becomes the obvious suspect and is forced to go on the run.

He heads north to his native Scotland, fleeing the police and his enemies.

Hannay must keep his wits about him if he is to warn the government before all is too late. This classic spy thriller sold a million copies before Buchan died in 1940, has been adapted countless times for film, television and the stage, and features the most exciting chase in the history of fiction. With an introduction by Stuart Kelly. This edition is authorised by the John Buchan Society.