Greenmantle – John Buchan

One Response to Greenmantle – John Buchan

1. Mr Red says:

   March 14, 2020 at 12:41 pm

   As a fan of the 39 Steps (both the book and the film) I’d read this about 40 years ago, and came back to it with high expectations. This really is Boy’s Own stuff, however, and apart from the fact that I’ve grown up in the meantime, the world has also changed. The racism really is outrageous (one character says proudly he’s been a ‘nigger-driver’ in South Africa, and the Turks are so stupid that they are easily fooled by an Englishman in disguise, as well as being gullible and liable to outbursts of irrational religious enthusiasm). Nevertheless, Buchan is great at suspenseful narrative, and quite a few of the situations he gets his characters into generate a good deal of excitement, provided one suspends one’s disbelief. Rather disturbing, however, to think that the author was a senior British administrator and politician.

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