History Creator / JohnBuchan

BondVillainStupidity: Perhaps unsurprising, given that Creator/IanFleming was a fan of Buchan. In particular, the villains in ''Mr Standfast'' and ''The Three Hostages'' have ample opportunities to do away with Richard Hannay but opt not to do so (in the former, Hannay is put in what amounts to a DeathTrap ''without being relieved of his gun'').

* ActionDad: Richard Hannay in ''The Island of Sheep'' when he is accompanied by his son, Peter John. In the same novel, Valdemar Haraldsen is also this as his daughter Anna is involved; [[spoiler: he actually becomes TheBerserker when he single-handedly captures the main villain and ''throws him off a cliff''.]]

* LazyAlias: Having used the pseudonym 'Cornelius Brandt' in ''Greenmantle'', Hannay opts for the almost-identical 'Cornelius Brand' in ''Mr Standfast''.

** At the start of ''The Island of Sheep'', Hannay recalls an old acquaintance, Lombard, after hearing his name mentioned in a Parliamentary speech. Guess who's in the same compartment as Hannay on the train home?

* IGaveMyWord: In ''The Island of Sheep'', Hannay gets involved in the action because he once swore an oath to protect the son of a man he once knew in Rhodesia.

* ProphecyTwist: ''Greenmantle'' revolves around a foretelling that a great Islamic prophet will reveal himself to the people at a time when they are in great need. The villains are trying to set up a puppet prophet to gain influence over the Islamic world. [[spoiler: Sandy, who has infiltrated the villains' operation undercover, gets picked to be the false prophet after the original candidate dies suddenly, and subsequently does a runner wearing the full prophetic regalia to forestall the fake revelation. Later, after the villains are defeated and the Allied forces have, with the heroes' help, won the Battle of Erzurum, the heroes go to join the army heading into the city, with Sandy in particular so keen to be back in the fighting that he doesn't bother to change out of the regalia, which he's still wearing. Observing the reaction of the defeated Turks as Sandy rides past in the van of the conquering Allied army,]] Hannay observes that the prophecy has technically been fulfilled. "Greenmantle had appeared at last to an awaiting people."

** Otto von Schwabing in ''Mr Standfast'' - the German spy and MasterOfDisguise [[spoiler: (two other characters, the pacifist leader Moxon Ivery and the American journalist Clarence Donne, are actually his aliases)]], who is plotting to use the pacifist movement to undermine the British war effort. [[spoiler: His physical cowardice precludes him from Magnificent Bastard status.]]

** Otto von Schwabing in ''Mr Standfast'' - the German spy and MasterOfDisguise [[spoiler: (two other characters, the pacifist leader Moxon Ivery and the American journalist Clarence Donne, are actually his aliases)]], who is plotting to use the pacifist movement to undermine the British war effort.

* SharedUniverse: Many of Buchan's novels - those set in the (then) present day at least - occupy the same universe. Sir Edward Leithen and Richard Hannay, his two most frequent protagonists, are both members of the same gentlemen's club. Leithen encounters Hannay's friend Archie Roylance in ''John Macnab'', and Archie in turn works with Dickson [=McCunn=] in ''Huntingtower'' and ''The House of the Four Winds''.

* WouldHurtAChild: The BigBad of ''The Three Hostages'', for one of the titular hostages is a small boy. Hannay, who has previously [[RefusalOfTheCall refused to help out]] with the hostage situation, is only persuaded to get involved after he meets with the boy's father. This leads him to think about how he'd feel if it were his own son, and realise that he won't be able to live with himself if he doesn't try.
* WouldNotShootACivilian: Sort of. At one point in ''Mr Standfast'', Hannay has an opportunity to shoot the BigBad - but, because he's got his back to him, he declines.

* GenteelInterbellumSetting: Something of a given, since most of Buchan's novels were written during the Inter-War Period and most of his characters tend to move in high society. Most notably, the events of ''The Gap in the Curtain'' begin at a country house party.

* ImprovisationalIngenuity: Richard Hannay is good at the Limited Time flavour of this. There are several occasions in ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'' when he just goes for an IndyPloy.

LazyAlias: Having used the pseudonym 'Cornelius Brandt' in ''Greenmantle'', Hannay opts for the almost-identical 'Cornelius Brand' in ''Mr Standfast''.

WouldHurtAChild: The BigBad of ''The Three Hostages'', for one of the titular hostages is a small boy. Hannay, who has previously [[RefusalOfTheCall refused to help out]] with the hostage situation, is only persuaded to get involved after he meets with the boy's father. This leads him to think about how he'd feel if it were his own son, and realise that he won't be able to live with himself if he doesn't try.
WouldNotShootACivilian: Sort of. At one point in ''Mr Standfast'', Hannay has an opportunity to shoot the BigBad - but, because he's got his back to him, he declines.

** In the historical novels, David Sempill (''Witch Wood'') and Peter Pentecost (''The Blanket of the Dark'') are this - although they have love interests (respectively, Katrine and Sabine), they ultimately prove elusive.

--> My dear Tommy,
--> You and I have long cherished an affection for the elementary type of novel which the Americans call the 'dime novel' and which we know as the 'shocker' - the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible.

** In that novel, Richard Hannay visits a house that, of all the houses in the Scottish Lowlands, just happens to be the one that the spies are renting. [[spoiler:Furthermore, the room they lock him in just happens to have explosives in the cupboard. Hannay, of course, is a mining engineer and so knows how to use them safely in order to effect his escape.]]

** Otto von Schwabing in ''Mr Standfast'' - the German spy and master of disguise [[spoiler: (two other characters, the pacifist leader Moxon Ivery and the American journalist Clarence Donne, are actually his aliases)]], who is plotting to use the pacifist movement to undermine the British war effort.

* At the start of ''The Island of Sheep'', Hannay recalls an old acquaintance, Lombard, after hearing his name mentioned in a Parliamentary speech. On the train home, Lombard is in the same compartment as him.

** More obviously, the Norland Islands (one of which is ''The Island of Sheep'') are the Faroe Islands.

* ProphecyTwist: Greenmantle revolves around a foretelling that a great Islamic prophet will reveal himself to the people at a time when they are in great need. The villains are trying to set up a puppet prophet to gain influence over the Islamic world. [[spoiler: Sandy, who has infiltrated the villains' operation undercover, gets picked to be the false prophet after the original candidate dies suddenly, and subsequently does a runner wearing the full prophetic regalia to forestall the fake revelation. Later, after the villains are defeated and the Allied forces have, with the heroes' help, won the Battle of Erzurum, the heroes go to join the army heading into the city, with Sandy in particular so keen to be back in the fighting that he doesn't bother to change out of the regalia, which he's still wearing. Observing the reaction of the defeated Turks as Sandy rides past in the van of the conquering Allied army,]] Hannay observes that the prophecy has technically been fulfilled. "Greenmantle had appeared at last to an awaiting people."

* TheChessmaster: As [[TheSpymaster spy chiefs]], Sir Walter Bullivant and John S. Blenkiron qualify. [[DiabolicalMastermind Villains]] like Otto von Schwabing (''Mr Standfast'') and Dominick Medina (''The Three Hostages'') also count.

* MasterOfDisguise: Sandy Arbuthnot. On more than one occasion, Hannay - a close friend - meets him while he's in disguise and ''has no idea'' that it's him. Quite a few of the villains count as well - especially the BigBad in ''Mr Standfast''. Hannay's friend Peter Pienaar and at times Hannay himself also have their moments.

* OfficerAndAGentleman: Richard Hannay, Edward Leithen, Sandy Arbuthnot, etc.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarI: The setting for several novels, most notably ''Greenmantle'' and ''Mr Standfast'' (the former was published in 1916 and - somewhat surprisingly - features a sympathetic portrayal of the Kaiser). Buchan rose to become the British Government's Director of Information during that war, and also wrote a 24-volume history of it which began while it was still in progress.

* ImprovisationalIngenuity: Richard Hannay is good at the Limited Time flavour of this. There are several occasions in ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'' where he just goes for an IndyPloy.

* FramingDevice: Used in ''Midwinter'' which is written with a framing narrative of the twentieth-century discovery of a manuscript that tells the protagonist's story, with the added bonus that it explains why a particular period of Creator/SamuelJohnson's life is missing from Boswell's ''Life of Samuel Johnson'' (the time of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, to be precise). The story itself is the supposed manuscript, fleshed out by the discoverer for publication.