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Lead book review

Retracing The Thirty-Nine Steps in Buchan’s beloved Borders

Richard Hannay’s first adventure, now 100 years old, is a pastoral disguised as a thriller

10 October 2015

9:00 AM

10 October 2015

9:00 AM

Like Richard Hannay, I had to run to catch the early morning train from London to Edinburgh. Thankfully, unlike Hannay, I wasn’t wanted for murder — I’d merely overslept again. As the train pulled out of King’s Cross, I fished out my old Penguin edition of The Thirty-Nine Steps, Hannay’s first — and most famous —adventure.

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