John Buchan

What a guy! A good BBC4 (didgy box Xams gift from the olds!) documentary last night a reminder of his amazing achievements despite gut trouble: son of a dreamy Scottish presbyterian minster, hard work, sense of sin from mother, grammar school scholarship, Oxford, over 100 books, including founding a genre (more or less), a few biographies and an autobiography, husband, father of four, war reporter, director of Ministry of Information, editor of the Spectator, Tory MP (remind you of anyone?), pro-Israel not anti-semitic, Governor General of Canada, elevated to the peerage, slipped getting out the the bath, whacked his head and died a few days later in 1940. Not bad. 39 Steps has been made into at least 3 films (including one by Hitchcock of which Buchan approved, despite its liberties with the story) and continues to sell 10 000 copies a year.