Mr. Standfast by John Buchan

I spent one-third of my journey looking out of the window of a first-class carriage, the next in a local motor-car following the course of a trout stream in a shallow valley, and the last tramping over a ridge of downland through great beech-woods to my quarters for the night. In the first part I was in an infamous temper; in the second I was worried and mystified; but the cool twilight of the third stage calmed and heartened me, and I reached the gates of Fosse Manor with a mighty appetite and a quiet mind. As we slipped up the Thames valley on the smooth Great Western line I had reflected ruefully on the thorns in the path of duty. For more than a year I had never been out of khaki, except the months I spent in hospital. They gave me my battalion before the Somme, and I came out of that weary battle after the first big September fighting with a crack in my head and a D.S.O. I had received a C.B. for the Erzerum business, so what with these and my Matabele and South African medals and the Legion of Honour, I had a chest like the High Priest's breastplate. I rejoined in January, and got a brigade on the eve of Arras. There we had a star turn, and took about as many prisoners as we put infantry over the top. After that we were hauled out for a month, and subsequently planted in a bad bit on the Scarpe with a hint that we would soon be used for a big push. Then suddenly I was ordered home to report to the War Office, and passed on by them to Bullivant and his merry men. So here I was sitting in a railway carriage in a grey tweed suit, with a neat new suitcase on the rack labelled C.B. The initials stood for Cornelius Brand, for that was my name now. And an old boy in the corner was asking me questions and wondering audibly why I wasn't fighting, while a young blood of a second lieutenant with a wound stripe was eyeing me with scorn. The old chap was one of the cross-examining type, and after he had borrowed my matches he set to work to find out all about me. He was a tremendous fire-eater, and a bit of a pessimist about our slow progress in the west. I told him I came from South Africa and was a mining engineer. 'Been fighting with Botha?' he asked.

Mr Standfast is the third of five Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan. It was 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 directly before the war started.

The title refers to a character in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The story goes on to include novel multiple other references too. For example, Hannay uses a copy of Pilgrim's Progress to decipher coded messages from his contacts and letters from his friend Peter Pienaar.

For its pace and suspense, its changes of scene and thrilling descriptions of the last primary battles against the Germans, Mr Standfast offers everything that has made its author so popular.

John Buchan's #3 Richard Hannay book - longer and more complex again than Greenmantle, but based on recurring characters (good and evil!) from both The Thirty-Nine Steps and Greenmantle.

First published in 1919 it is an impressive undertaking, weaving the story through the active front of the Great War but was perhaps the geography of the story was much more readily understood than today (it begins and end in France, but takes in Britain, Italy and Switzerland. Those reading it when published would have been familiar with the happenings at the front. General Hannay is withdrawn from the front by British Intelligence to undertake a secret mission - although he knows little detail of it in advance, purposely as is suits him poorly - among conscientious objectors, pacifists and anti-war folks. A wild chase up through Scotland allows for some typically Buchan high pace combined with fortuitous coincidences and feats of physical endurance.

The storyline also gave Buchan the opportunity to write for pages on the topics of national character and the anti-war movement. There was 50% too much of this for me to bear and some skimming came into play. Then of course, there was the German angle, where again Buchan could frame the Boche and their underhand methods (like the anthrax packages, planted German agents in Britain, etc). So there really was a soapbox opportunity.

The big change from the first two books was the introduction of the love interest - handled rather clumsily to be honest. Mary Lamington (I know, right?) is half Hannay's age and weirdly described as boyish, and clean and it is noted that she ‘can't soil'.

Was this perhaps once of the earliest books in which the evil villain of the story tells the captive hero of his plans, then leaves him in a situation he is unlikely to escape from, only for the hero to escape and foil those plans? So James Bond villain, and so well mocked in Austin Powers in modern time!

If you have reached the end of my review and are still wondering about the title of the book - I did too, until I realised that Mr Standfast is a character from Pilgrims Progress, the book used by Hannay and the network as a cypher. There may have been more subtleties I missed, having not read that book.

In spite of its faults, this is still a very entertaining book, and given how early a publication this is, was formative of the genre.

4 stars