Mr. Standfast (1919)

(one of 24 books found today at 2nd hand shop...24 for $10!)

His desire was not for reform, but for restitution, and that was past the power of any Government. I went to bed in the loft in a sad, reflective mood, considering how in speeding our newfangled plough we must break down a multitude of molehills and how desirable and unreplaceable was the life of the moles. ( )

When Richard Hannay, the hero of The Thirty-nine Steps, is recalled by the Head of British Intelligence from the Western Front at a critical moment in the battle for France, he has little idea that his contribution to the war effort will be much more crucial than the command of his Brigade in Flanders. In his strange odyssey to unravel the most sinister of conspiracies to defeat the allies in the West he travels from an idyllic manor house in the Cotswolds to a provincial Garden City where pacifism is the order of the day, through Scotland and London under attack, and thence back to the trenches, and the greatest battle of the First World War. There, amid the devastation and the squalor, he finds both love and a horrifying glimpse of chemical warfare before the thrilling dénoument in the skies above the battlefield.

I first read this book many years ago when I was in secondary school. Over the course of a few months, I bought the five Richard Hannay adventures. Reading them the first time was enjoyable but they didn't leave much of an impact. I've started reading them again and after the break of a few years, they have proved to be even more readable.

This is especially the case with the descrption of the Scottish landscape at which Buchan excels.

Of course, it's hard to believe that anyone used to write books like this about war but in one way it is refreshing. It's certainly not a pacifist book but it's not wholly pro-war at the same time. ( )