Book review – “Greenmantle” by John Buchan

The second Hannay differs markedly from The 39 Steps for two reasons (a) Hannay volunteers for the mission as opposed to being thrust into it (he’s an officer in the British army by now and a lot more confident about derring-do), and (b) he goes on the mission with several of his mates. For sure, he performs the first bit on his own (going undercover then fleeing from the Germans) but eventually teams up with his friends for the final bit. He has three main allies in this one – Sandy Arbuthnot, the friendly Boer Peter and a fat American, John. Sandy is actually more heroic than Hannay, but is such a flashy improbably character it’s probably best the more sensible Hannay take care of narration duties.

The mission involves Hannay going to the near East to investigate a possible Islamic uprising. Hannay points out he’s not really qualified, most of his experience being in Africa – Sir Walter Bullivant not very convincingly says he gets the gig because he can sniff out gold.

Buchan’s attitude to the Germans is interesting – they are the enemy, no doubt about that, but he admires them. Some are burly thugs like Stumm with his massive neck, others are “white men” like the engineer, but they are smart and brave, if all touched with a whiff of the fanatic. He’s even sympathetic for the dopey, nice woman in the cottage who helps him. He also doesn’t mind Turks as fighting men, although the country is lazy and corrupt.

Hannay’s not much of a spy. He blows cover because Stumm is mean to him, causing him to thump the German; after he does he doesn’t kill Stumm like he should but walks away. Later on when going undercover as an engineer he refuses to damage munitions meant to be used against the British because of personal pride.

Like 39 Steps, the novel has brisk pace and Buchan has a flair for description. There’s a few too many moments of luck to benefit Hannay – he comes across a ship that needs an engineer enabling him to escape, he runs into Peter, etc. But the novel has a real feeling of adventure and gets better as it goes along; there are some excellent action pieces such as an attack in Constantinople and Peter Pienaar trying to cross over to the Russian lines. Also, there’s a strong villain with the femme fetale who almost tempts poor Sandy into betraying his country (she does offer him a kingdom, riches, herself – I felt sorry for her at the end when he reveals he’s a British officer; this has more emotional kick than many Buchan works – helping this is the scene which I always remembered since reading this as a teenager of our heroes surrounded by the enemy talking about how good their lives had been and how they didn’t fear death). Indeed, the action/adventure stuff is better than the spy/thriller stuff.