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Richard Hannay
Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and further made popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film '' The 39 Steps'' (and other later film adaptations), very loosely based on Buchan's 1915 novel of the same name. In his autobiography, ''Memory Hold-the-Door'', Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer War, and a British Army field marshal and CIGS. Novels By Buchan Hannay appears in several novels as a major character, including: * '' The Thirty-Nine Steps'' (1915) * '' Greenmantle'' (1916) * '' Mr Standfast'' (1919) * '' The Three Hostages'' (1924) * '' The Island of Sheep'' (1936) He also appears as a minor character in: *'' The Runagates Club'' (1928) short story, 'The Green Wildebeest' * '' The Courts of the Morning'' (1929) * '' Sick Heart River'' (1940) By other authors Robert J. Harris has written ''The Thirty-One ...
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The Thirty-Nine Steps
''The Thirty-Nine Steps'' is a 1915 adventure novel by the Scottish literature, Scottish author John Buchan, first published by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. It was Serial (literature), serialized in ''Argosy (magazine)#The All-Story, All-Story Weekly'' issues of 5 and 12 June 1915, and in ''Blackwood's Magazine'' (credited to "H. de V.") between July and September 1915, before being published in book form in October of that year. It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a knack for getting himself out of tricky situations. The novel has been adapted many times, including several films and a long-running stage play. In 2003, the book was listed on the BBC's The Big Read, Big Read poll of Britain's "best-loved novels." Plot The story's narrator, Richard Hannay, arrives in London from Rhodesia (region), Rhodesia early in 1914, having made a modest fortune as a mining engineer. Disillusioned with his uneventf ...
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Knight Commander Of The Order Of The Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servants, and the monarch awards it on the advice of His Majesty's Government. The name derives from an elaborate medieval ceremony for preparing a candidate to receive his knighthood, of which ritual bathing (as a symbol of Ritual purification, purification) was an element. While not all knights went through such an elaborate ceremony, knights so created were known as "knights of the Bath". George I constituted the Knights of the Bath as a regular Order (honour), military order. He did not revive the order, which did not previously exist, in the sense of a body of knights governed by a set of statutes and whose numbers were replenished when vacancies occurred. The Order consists of the Sovereign of the United King ...
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The Runagates Club
''The Runagates Club'' is a 1928 collection of short stories by the Scottish author John Buchan. The collection consists of twelve tales presented as reminiscences of members of ''The Runagates Club'', a London dining society. Several of the stories are recounted by recurrent characters in Buchan’s fiction, including Richard Hannay, Sandy Arbuthnot, John Palliser-Yeates, Charles Lamancha, and Edward Leithen. Contents The stories are entitled: * ''The Green Wildebeest'': Sir Richard Hannay’s Story * ''The Frying Pan and the Fire'': The Duke of Burminster’s Story ** 1. ''The Frying-Pan'' ** 2. ''The Fire'' * ''Dr Lartius'': Mr Palliser-Yeates’s Story * ''The Wind in the Portico'': Mr Henry Nightingale's Story * ''’Divus’ Johnston'': Lord Lamancha's Story * ''The Loathly Opposite'': Major Oliver Pugh's Story * ''Sing a Song of Sixpence'': Sir Edward Leithen's Story * ''Ship to Tarshish'': Mr Ralph Collatt's Story * ''Skule Skerry'': Mr Anthony Hurrell's Story * '''T ...
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The Island Of Sheep
''The Island of Sheep'' is a 1936 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, the last of his novels to focus on his characters Richard Hannay and Sandy Arbuthnot. It was published in the United States under the title ''The Man from the Norlands''. Plot summary The action occurs twelve years later on from the last novel, when Hannay, now in his fifties, is called by an old oath to protect the son of a man he once knew, who is also heir to the secret of a great treasure. He obtains help from Sandy Arbuthnot, now Lord Clanroyden, and Lombard. The action takes place in England, in Scotland and on the Island of Sheep, which is in what Buchan calls the Norlands: clearly the Faroe Islands. There are several stereotypical villains, in particular D'Ingraville from '' The Courts of the Morning'', and the book also focuses on Hannay's son, Peter John, now a bright but solemn teenager. In Book I Richard Hannay is on his way down to the Solent to lay up his yacht. He has heard a speech i ...
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The Three Hostages
''The Three Hostages'' is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels by the Scottish author John Buchan, first published in July 1924 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. Hannay had previously appeared in '' The Thirty Nine Steps'' (1915), his most famous adventure, and in two books about his activities during the First World War, ''Greenmantle'' (1916) and '' Mr Standfast'' (1919). The last novel in this series of five novels is '' The Island of Sheep.'' ''Three Hostages'' is set sometime after the war. Hannay has married Mary Lamington (who featured in '' Mr Standfast'') and the couple have settled down to live in rural tranquility in the Cotswolds with their young son Peter John. Plot Dr Greenslade discusses with his friend Richard Hannay the power of the subconscious, and the ills of post-war society. Hannay is asked to help recover three hostages seized by associates of a criminal gang that aims to control people's disturbed and disordered minds in the aftermath of the Great War. ...
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Mr Standfast
''Mr Standfast'' is the third of five Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan, first published in 1919 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being '' Greenmantle'' (1916); Hannay's first and best-known adventure, ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'' (1915), is set in the period immediately before the war started. The title refers to a character in John Bunyan's '' Pilgrim's Progress'', to which there are many other references in the novel; Hannay uses a copy of ''Pilgrim's Progress'' to decipher coded messages from his contacts, and letters from his friend Peter Pienaar. Plot introduction During the later years of the First World War Brigadier-General Hannay is recalled from active service on the Western Front to undertake a secret mission hunting for a dangerous German agent at large in Britain. Hannay is required to work undercover disguised as a pacifist, roaming the country incognito to investigate a German spy and his ...
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Greenmantle
''Greenmantle'' is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character Richard Hannay. It was first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being '' Mr Standfast'' (1919); Hannay's first and best-known adventure, ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'' (1915), is set in the period immediately preceding the war. Plot introduction Hannay is called in to investigate rumours of an uprising in the Muslim world, and undertakes a perilous journey through enemy territory to meet his friend Sandy in Constantinople. Once there, he and his friends must thwart the Germans' plans to use religion to help them win the war, climaxing at the battle of Erzurum. Plot summary The book opens in November 1915, with Hannay and his friend Sandy convalescing from wounds received at the Battle of Loos. Sir Walter Bullivant, a senior intelligence officer, summons Hannay to the Foreign Office. Bullivant briefs Hannay on ...
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Second Boer War
The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and Orange Free State) over Britain's influence in Southern Africa. The Witwatersrand Gold Rush caused a large influx of "Uitlander, foreigners" (''Uitlanders'') to the South African Republic (SAR), mostly British from the Cape Colony. As they, for fear of a hostile takeover of the SAR, were permitted to vote only after 14 years of residence, they protested to the British authorities in the Cape. Negotiations failed at the botched Bloemfontein Conference in June 1899. The conflict broke out in October after the British government decided to send 10,000 troops to South Africa. With a delay, this provoked a Boer and British ultimatum, and subsequent Boer Irregular military, irregulars and militia attacks on British colonial settlements in Natal ...
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Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh had a population of in , making it the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, second-most populous city in Scotland and the List of cities in the United Kingdom, seventh-most populous in the United Kingdom. The Functional urban area, wider metropolitan area had a population of 912,490 in the same year. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is the seat of the Scottish Government, the Scottish Parliament, the Courts of Scotland, highest courts in Scotland, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarch in Scotland. It is also the annual venue of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The city has long been a cent ...
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Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside
Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside, (6 May 1880 – 22 September 1959) was a senior officer of the British Army who served as Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom), Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the first year of the Second World War. Ironside joined the Royal Artillery in 1899, and served throughout the Second Boer War. This was followed by a brief period spying on the German colonial forces in South-West Africa. Returning to regular duty, he served on the staff of the 6th Infantry Division (United Kingdom), 6th Infantry Division during the first two years of the First World War, before being appointed to a position on the staff of the newly raised 4th Canadian Division in 1916. In 1918, he was given command of a brigade on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front. In 1919, he was promoted to command the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, Allied intervention force in northern Russia. Iro ...
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The 39 Steps (1935 Film)
''The 39 Steps'' is a 1935 British Spy film, spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. It is loosely based on the 1915 novel ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'' by John Buchan. It concerns a Canadian civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organisation of spies called "The 39 Steps" from stealing British military secrets. Mistakenly accused of the murder of a counter-espionage agent, Hannay goes on the run to Scotland and becomes tangled up with an attractive woman, Pamela, while hoping to stop the spy ring and clear his name. Since its initial release, the film has been widely acknowledged as a classic. Filmmaker and actor Orson Welles referred to it as a "masterpiece". Screenwriter Robert Towne remarked, "It's not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapist entertainment begins with ''The 39 Steps''." Plot At a London music hall theatre, Richard Hannay is watching "Mr. Memory" demon ...
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Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 feature films, many of which are still widely watched and studied today. Known as the "Master of Suspense", Hitchcock became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, List of cameo appearances by Alfred Hitchcock, his cameo appearances in most of his films, and his hosting and producing the television anthology ''Alfred Hitchcock Presents'' (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won the award for Academy Award for Best Director, Best Director, despite five nominations. Hitchcock initially trained as a technical clerk and copywriter before entering the film industry in 1919 as a title card designer. His directorial debut was the British–German silent film ''Th ...
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