Out for adventure
Robert J Harris’ homage to Buchan sees a welcome return for a host of favourite characters in an enjoyable ‘shocker’ allan massie
John Buchan’s survival is remarkable. The novels he seemed to throw off so easily and described dismissively as “shockers” have outlasted the work of many of his contemporaries recognised in their time as serious and important novelists. It’s more than a hundred years now since Richard Hannay, disguised as a milkman, slipped out of his flat leaving the murdered Scudder behind and took a train to Scotland to embark on the first of his adventures. I don’t think The Thirty-nine Steps has ever been out of print since.
Now, in a caper novel which is also a tribute to Buchan, Robert J Harris has engagingly revived Hannay. It is 1940, the Battle of France is under way, and Britain and the Empire need him again. It’s just credible, or as credible as Hannay ever was; I don’t think he need be more than 60 years old, assuming he was only in his late thirties when he returned to London before 1914, having “made my pile” as a mining engineer in South Africa.
Still, the War Office don’t seem to have a use for him, and he is working off his frustration by taking a walking-tour in Dumfries and Galloway with the faithful Mary when a biplane crashes beside them and with his dying breath the young pilot delivers a cryptic message about a new Dickens novel and 31 kings.
The game’s afoot and Dick and Mary head for London, throwing off an old adversary last encountered in or on The Island of Sheep. The message leads him – naturally – to John S Blenkiron (for me one of Buchan’s more improbable characters), now lurking in a London Bookshop.
There is a mission for Hannay, vital if the war is not to be lost. Hannay must get to Paris before the Germans arrive and rescue an important agent who may have been caught and tortured by the enemy. Time is of course short, but Hannay is used to this – see, for example, the timetable in Greenmantle.
Fortunately he is not alone. Sandy Arbuthnott (Lord Clanroyden) is already somewhere in France. Sir Archie Roylance, gammy leg and all, is back in the RAF and ready to fly him across the Channel. Best of all, Blenkiron has already recruited characters from the other Buchan series which began with Huntingtower.
Dickson Mccunn is too old for active service – he’s commanding a Home Guard unit in Ayrshire – but the Gorbals Die-hards are ready, willing and able. And Wee Jaikie – rugby international and Oxford scholar, as we learned in Castle Gay – is soon preventing Hannay from getting into a villainous taxi and whisking him to safety through the streets of London on the pillion of his motorbike. So the wind is set fair for France and hair-raising adventures.
Not everyone can be resurrected, Buchan having – thoughtlessly –
This is a loving tribute to Buchan, then, and thoroughly good fun
killed off some of Hannay’s enemies. The Graf von Schwabing (who poses as the mysterious Mr Ivery in Mr Standfast) is – good riddance – dead. So, alas, are the magnificent Colonel von Stumm and the gorgeous, fanatical Hilda von Einem.
Happily, however, Harris is undaunted. Might Hilda have a daughter thirsting for revenge? Of course she might and it will –surely – take the Gorbals Die-hards to rescue Hannay from her clutches in a nightmare Paris awaiting the arrival of the German Army.
This is a loving tribute to Buchan, then, and thoroughly good fun. Harris may not have Buchan’s uncanny sense of place or his ability to create memorable scenes and moments when the action is stayed – such pauses are part of Buchan’s magic, and a part that Harris can’t quite recapture.
Nevertheless, the action scenes are excellent and gripping, and he does strike authentic notes. He recognizes that Hannay frequently blunders into danger by a faulty appreciation of situations and people, yet always contrives to extricate himself, or to be extricated with a little help from his friends.
It’s only 1940, so there are years of war ahead, more missions, surely for Hannay and, one hopes , for Wee Jaikie – hard to believe that he won’t find his way into SOE or the Commandos. It’s good to meet the Buchan gang again, though I confess it wouldn’t distress me if Harris, in a sequel, has Blenkiron killed in the Blitz. ■