The Thirty-Nine Steps

John Buchan wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps while he was sick in bed with a duodenal ulcer, an illness that followed him throughout his life and never disappeared. It was later written by Buchan's son William that the name of the book came from the fact that the author's daughter was counting the stairs at St. Cuby, a private nursing home on Cliff Promenade in Broadstairs, where Buchan was recuperating at the time. This novel was his first "shocker," as he called it-a story combining personal and political dramas. It marked a turning point in Buchan's literary career and introduced his adventuring hero, Richard Hannay. He described a "shocker" as an adventure where the events in the story are unlikely, and the reader can only just believe that they happened. After a brief legal career, Buchan simultaneously began his writing career and his political and diplomatic careers, serving as a private secretary to the administrators of various colonies in southern Africa. He eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort during the First World War. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1927. Still, he spent most of his time on his writing career, notably The Thirty-Nine Steps and other adventure fiction.