John Buchan’s career as a writer, one of the best-selling of his day, would have been remarkable, even in someone who had done nothing else. However, it is that film which, more than anything else, has kept the book and its author in the public eye ever since. After all, he was just about to take up his appointment as Governor-General of Canada, earned after a hard slog in the House of Commons, with the title of Lord Tweedsmuir. Rightly, he reckoned his novel of 1915 to be a modest accomplishment in the context of his many other achievements. This was not simply an example of his famous courtesy and good nature. ‘Better than the book’ was John Buchan’s verdict when he first saw Alfred Hitchcock’s film, The 39 Steps, in 1935.
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