The Thirty-Nine Steps (60 page)

There is something in the very title
The Thirty-Nine Steps
that makes it memorable even before having read the book. In fact, those who have
not read the book still have the pleasure of wondering what the 39 steps might be.
Are they a metaphor for 39 stages in life perhaps, are they a series of 39 instructions,
are they literally 39 steps that need ascending or descending, or are they 39 steps
needed to pace out a distance from one point to another? John Buchan chose his title
well when he published his masterpiece of a thriller in 1915, with the title’s ambiguity
gripping the reader from the first page.

Buchan was inspired to write
The Thirty-Nine Steps
at the outbreak of World War I. He wrote for the British War Propaganda Bureau at
the time and was well aware of the espionage that went on in 1914. The hero of the
story, Richard Hannay, is inadvertently caught up in a world of espionage just before
the war. He finds himself a fugitive on the run, suspected of a murder, but determined
to complete a mission handed to him by the killed agent, Scudder. His mission is to
prevent the assassination of the Greek Premier, or so he thinks.

When Hannay reads Scudder’s notebook he comes across references to a group called
the Black Stone and the phrase ‘the thirty-nine steps’. He suspects that the Germans
may be planning a secret invasion of British soil. By this point Hannay is playing
cat and mouse with the authorities pursuing him and it becomes apparent that there
are people in high places on both sides. Eventually he makes contact with those he
needs to and a national disaster is averted. The troublemakers are caught and arrested,
thereby preventing the Germans from getting their hands on British military secrets
and thwarting their ambitions of invasion.

At the time of publication World War I was yet to be concluded and Buchan’s novel
had immediate appeal. In reality the Germans of the Second Reich had no intention
of crossing The Channel, but the threat of invasion and conquest was something that
ran deep in the souls and the history of the British. Of course, following World War
I it was only a matter of two decades before the threat of war loomed again. This
time the Third Reich would have its sights set firmly on adding Britain to its territory
and Buchan’s book took on a new lease of life. In 1935 Alfred Hitchcock, with his
eye on the zeitgeist, released the first film version of
The Thirty-Nine Steps
to an audience only too aware that the Nazis had seized power in Germany two years
before and a baleful future lurked on the horizon.

Buchan himself was a multifaceted personality. He was born in Perth, Scotland, and
studied Classics at Oxford University before initially working in law and then sidestepping
into civil service. His competence in the spheres of politics and diplomacy led him
to become Governor General of Canada, yet during his very public career he managed
to continue with his writing in private. He wrote around 100 works between 1896 and
1940, including fiction and nonfiction. His first job was as private secretary to
a colonial administrator in Southern Africa. It was here that he encountered Edmund
Ironside, the inspiration for the characterization of Richard Hannay in
The Thirty-Nine Steps
. Ironside was a British Military Officer who had spent time as a spy and would go
on to play significant roles in both world wars. He possessed a distinctive blend
of coolness and bravery, which Buchan knew would be perfect for Hannay. Ironside became
Commander-in-Chief Home Forces in 1940, where he was responsible for anti-invasion
defences – Buchan would, surely, have enjoyed the irony.

When Buchan published
The Thirty-Nine Steps
, Europe was in turmoil. The many thousands who had willingly signed up to fight the
Germans were learning that warfare was not romantic but rather the nearest thing to
hell on earth. Furthermore, the technological transition of the age created a new
kind of warfare, where troops wallowed in muddy trenches for month after month, occasionally
being picked off by sniper and blown apart by artillery. Or being ordered to make
futile advances into no man’s land where death was almost a certainty. Resentment
of the ‘Hun’ was growing and Buchan released the perfect book, as affirmation to the
reader that the Germans were not to be trusted and that the English would always find
a way to win in the end. This popular theme of outwitting a dishonourable and devious
foe, which proved so effective for Buchan, has continued with similar stories set
during World War II and the Cold War, providing plenty of potential for tales of conspiracy,
double dealing and double crossing, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

It seems fair to say that Buchan’s work was the earliest example of the thriller,
although he is himself known to have used the word ‘shocker’. His own prototype for
Hannay came in 1910 when he published his first adventure novel
Prester John
, featuring a character named David Crawfurd. Buchan had an instinct for building
tension or suspense into his stories, so that the reader feels compelled to continue
turning the pages. If there is a definition of the thriller genre, then it must be
that unexpected events occur in rapid sequence and that the protagonist is placed
in perpetual jeopardy, so that the reader has a need to know what happens next for
fear that their hero may not survive. Buchan spawned many thriller subgenres – psychological,
political, pursuit, paranoid and so on. They all explore different territory, but
all share a hero, or antihero, who is pitted against an enemy or villain. This basic
theme of ‘them and us’ is at the core of the human condition, which is why it is immediately
appealing. Even Westerns might be thought of as ‘prairie thrillers’ because the American
Indians represent ‘them’ and the cowboys represent ‘us’. Add to that model characters
who may not be what they seem, and the tension rises because the reader is no longer
sure who to trust. The object of the thriller writer is to get cortisol, adrenaline
and endorphins coursing through the blood of the reader, as if they are part of the
action. That way the reader elicits physical reactions to the information reaching
the brain and engages. Of course, this also means that the reader desires a satisfying
outcome to make the mental and physical experience worthwhile, and that is what the
best thrillers do.

Buchan capitalized on the success of
The Thirty-Nine Steps
by writing four further novels about Richard Hannay – two set during the war and
two post-war. The character of Hannay was part sleuth and part action hero, something
like a cross between Sherlock Holmes and James Bond. Sherlock Holmes books had been
in print since the 1880s and Buchan was clearly influenced by Conan Doyle’s hero.
Similarly, Ian Fleming developed the prototype model of Buchan’s Hannay to create
his Bond.

Buchan’s immediate literary successor was George Household, who specialized in the
‘man on the run’ thriller genre. His most celebrated novel is
Rogue Male
(1939) which was adapted into a film titled
Man Hunt
. Many of Household’s 28 novels feature a central character being pursued. There are
many other authors who attempted to write in the same genre, post-Buchan. Despite
their best efforts, though, it can be argued that none has surpassed
The Thirty-Nine Steps
, both in content and in title.

There is a lot to be said in praise of Buchan’s prose style. It has a particularly
contemporary feel despite being a century old. One line spoken by Scudder sets the
mood and the agenda from the very start of the book: ‘I’ve been watching you, and
I reckon you’re a cool customer. I reckon, too, you’re an honest man, and not afraid
of playing a bold hand. I’m going to confide in you. I need help worse than any man
ever needed it, and I want to know if I can count you in.’ Later Hannay narrates:
‘I snapped the switch, but there was nobody there. Then I saw something in the far
corner which made me drop my cigar and fall into a cold sweat. My guest was lying
sprawled on his back. There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him
to the floor.’ The stark imagery and spare language used by Buchan intensifies the
graphic scene set before the reader.

In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing
and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books and prayer books. That company was Collins
and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long
tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary
William published in 1824,
Greek and English Lexicon
. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even
obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

Soon after, William published the first Collins novel,
Ready Reckoner
, however it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices
were high, potato crops had failed and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result,
many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire
in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

Aged 30, William’s son, William II took over the business. A keen humanitarian with
a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly ‘Victorian’ in his outlook.
He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s
works and
Pilgrim’s Progress
, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational
books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books,
encyclopaedias and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication
of atlases and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.