The Thirty-Nine Steps, by John Buchan

[seaJane]

He also wrote a biography/hagiography of Francis and Riversdale Grenfell.

Adrian

Also These for Remembrance (1919) - memorialising his friends Tommy Nelson, killed in action at Arras in April 1917; Bron Lucas (Auberon Herbert), shot down over enemy lines in November 1916; Cecil Rawling, killed in action near Ypres, October 1917; Basil Blackwood, killed in action near Ypres, July 1917; Jack Wortley, killed in action at Bullecourt, March 1918; and Raymond Asquith, killed in action on the Somme, September 1916.

[Len Trim]

Strangely enough Buchan in general and 'The 39 Steps' in particular are being discussed as evidence of 'imperial propaganda' on a MOOC I am currently studying under the aegis of Exeter University.

[rolt968]

What is a(n) MOOC?

[rolt968]

I enjoyed reading John McNab and the BBC TV version of many years ago.

When the TV version was first shown I remember that a colleague and I discussed it one Friday lunchtime we and agreed that it was very unlikely that you would meet people you knew miles from home by chance on a moor in the middle of nowhere.

In the early hours of the following Sunday morning we encountered each other unexpectedly half way up Lochnagar. (One of those things you try to do on Midsummer's night when you are young(er?)! Neither of us got to the top.)

RM

[Len Trim]

What is a(n) MOOC?

Massive Open Online Course ie. something like a short Open University course. There are thousands available. Those under the umbrella FutureLearn are generally very good. Currently I am slightly overloading on three. One on the British Empire run by The University of Exeter. Very biased against the Empire. One on Shakespeare, his life and plays. Finally one on Mindfulness. In February there is one on WW1 and Memory. One of the most popular is a collaboration between the crime writer Val Mcdermeid and Dundee University in which the students have to solve a murder mystery using the narrative and forensic evidence provided. Most MOOCs sixx to eight weeks long.

Len

[Black Maria]

One of my favourites also.

I cut my mountaineering teeth in holidays at grandparents' place solo tramping around the hills and moors above Gatehouse of Fleet station, scene of several of the episodes in the book.

If you enjoy this genre, you'll also likely appreciate Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male set just before the next war.

I have never read 'The Thirty-Nine steps' but i never get tired of watching the three film versions of the book, and 'Rogue Male' is my favourite non-WW1 book.

[healdav]

Of course 39 Steps is rather less than believable in detail. But its a d............. good read and adventure story.

And I guess that that was what Buchan was aiming to write. No one would hav.e bought it otherwise, and he was a professional writer very into the game of actually selling his books (real academics and self styled intellectuals look down on people who actually sell books and don't realise that it is the glory from other academics who can't sell their books either that really counts).

[Gareth Davies]

Also These for Remembrance (1919) - memorialising his friends Tommy Nelson, killed in action at Arras in April 1917; Bron Lucas (Auberon Herbert), shot down over enemy lines in November 1916; Cecil Rawling, killed in action near Ypres, October 1917; Basil Blackwood, killed in action near Ypres, July 1917; Jack Wortley, killed in action at Bullecourt, March 1918; and Raymond Asquith, killed in action on the Somme, September 1916.

Two Aubrey/Auberon Herberts with a JB connection? That's interesting and possibly a little confusing.

I knew of Aubrey Nigel Henry Molyneaux Herbert, who the subject of my chum Edward Melotte's book Mons, Kut and Anzac. This Aubrey Herbert was, according to Wiki, the basis for the character Sandy Arbuthnot in the JB book Greenmantle and this is reinforced by AB's granddaughter's biography of him titled The Man Who Was Greenmantle.

I had never heard of Auberon Thomas Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas (and 5th Lord Dingwall), the AB mentioned (as SJ says above) in JB's These for Remembrance.

[rolt968]

Massive Open Online Course ie. something like a short Open University course. There are thousands available. Those under the umbrella FutureLearn are generally very good. Currently I am slightly overloading on three. One on the British Empire run by The University of Exeter. Very biased against the Empire. One on Shakespeare, his life and plays. Finally one on Mindfulness. In February there is one on WW1 and Memory. One of the most popular is a collaboration between the crime writer Val Mcdermeid and Dundee University in which the students have to solve a murder mystery using the narrative and forensic evidence provided. Most MOOCs sixx to eight weeks long.

Len

That sound very interesting.

[seaJane]

This Aubrey Herbert was, according to Wiki, the basis for the character Sandy Arbuthnot in the JB book Greenmantle and this is reinforced by AB's granddaughter's biography of him titled The Man Who Was Greenmantle.

I had never heard of Auberon Thomas Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas (and 5th Lord Dingwall), the AB mentioned (as SJ says above) in JB's These for Remembrance.

I have The Man who was Greenmantle Great read. I also think Sandy owes not a little to Lawrence of Arabia, especially in his Courts of the Morning appearance.

This is Auberon: "Having already served in South Africa, and in spite of his physical disability [had a leg amputated after being wounded in the foot] and the fact that he had passed the standard age, Lucas joined the Royal Flying Corps and proved himself a skilful pilot. He served in Egypt and then returned to England in 1916 as an instructor; on one occasion he was involved in a training accident in which his pupil was killed but he escaped. Lucas was offered the command of a squadron but preferred to go on active service in France. He had been at the front only for a short time when, on 3 November 1916, he made a flight over the German lines and did not return. He was reported missing, and on 4 December his death was officially announced by the War Office."

This is Aubrey: "On the outbreak of the First World War, Herbert joined the Irish Guards, despite his near blindness, by the simple method of buying himself a second lieutenant's uniform and falling in as the regiment boarded ship for France in August 1914. After being wounded and briefly taken prisoner during the retreat from Mons, he joined the intelligence bureau in Cairo, later known as the Arab bureau, in December 1914 with T. E. Lawrence, who became a close friend and ally. As liaison officer and interpreter he took part in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. He found that his ready command of French, Italian, German, Turkish, Arabic, Greek, and Albanian, and his personal friendship with many of the key figures in the area, made his presence invaluable to the commander-in-chief, although eyebrows were sometimes raised at his unremittingly pro-Turkish stance. He spent the rest of the war in intelligence work in Mesopotamia, Salonika, and Italy." [both snips from the ODNB]

I guess they were cousins, although I haven't worked out how. They certainly seem to be cut from the same cloth!

[Gareth Davies]

What's more confusing is that my chum is related to Auberon (and thus Evelyn) Waugh through Aubrey Herbert, not through Auberon Herbert.

Also interesting is the Irish Guards and poor eyesight. Maybe RK didn't have to push too hard to get his boy Jack in, precedent having been set by AH.

[rolt968]

This is Auberon: "Having already served in South Africa, and in spite of his physical disability [had a leg amputated after being wounded in the foot] and the fact that he had passed the standard age, Lucas joined the Royal Flying Corps and proved himself a skilful pilot. He served in Egypt and then returned to England in 1916 as an instructor; on one occasion he was involved in a training accident in which his pupil was killed but he escaped. Lucas was offered the command of a squadron but preferred to go on active service in France. He had been at the front only for a short time when, on 3 November 1916, he made a flight over the German lines and did not return. He was reported missing, and on 4 December his death was officially announced by the War Office."[/size]

It looks as if he was a part model for Peter Pienaar.

RM

[Guest]

The link between the two Herberts is that they were cousins. They have a common grandfather Henry Herbert, 3rd Earl of Carnarvon

[Gareth Davies]

Thank you.

[Jim Clay]

Yes. Although anything with Kenneth More in is good value, the Hitchcock version is by far the better movie (although hardly faithful to the book).

Indeed, with wonderful performances by Robert Donat and the lovely Madeleine Carroll - oh, and the unfeasibly dour wee Johnny Laurie.

[seaJane]

On 15/10/2015 at 00:29, rolt968 said:

It looks as if he was a part model for Peter Pienaar.

RM

I was just thinking that as I wrote! Although of course Peter flew, lost a leg, and was invalided out (except ///spoiler censored//// ). And Archie Roylance has a gammy leg after a fall from a race-horse (?have I got that right?) - although I'm not sure whether he joins the RFC before or after.

MG, thank you for clarifying the relationship link.

[David Filsell]

So what a surprise, Buchanan an Imperial Propagandist. Of course he was; he was a man of his times imbued with the spirit and beliefs of his times. Get over it. What us with these university lecturer tw*ts?

[Steven Broomfield]

Jack Buchanan? Who brought him into it?

[Guest]

BBC Radio Scotland: Writer' Propaganda Bureau: might be of some relevance. Buchan is featured towards the end of the programme. MG

[Len Trim]

So what a surprise, Buchanan an Imperial Propagandist. Of course he was; he was a man of his times imbued with the spirit and beliefs of his times. Get over it. What us with these university lecturer tw*ts?

David you might not be surprised to learn that Treasure Island, Coral Island, King Solomon's Mines, Biggles are also all examples of Imperial Propaganda. At least according to Exeter University. However Robinson Crusoe is the ultimate example as he colonises an island, has a Man Friday and is generally a superior imperialist type!

[Moonraker]

The other day I was musing that there might be scope for a role-reversal re-write of Robinson Crusoe with a black man "adopting" a white man as his slave. (Don't tell me, it's already been done?)

Moonraker

[healdav]

David you might not be surprised to learn that Treasure Island, Coral Island, King Solomon's Mines, Biggles are also all examples of Imperial Propaganda. At least according to Exeter University. However Robinson Crusoe is the ultimate example as he colonises an island, has a Man Friday and is generally a superior imperialist type!

Given that Robinson Crusoe was written before the empire existed, its a bit much to blame Defoe for the empire. Would they be blaming him as well for the plaque, given his book, Journal of a Plague Year?