Thirty-nine steps to a modern masterpiece

Is John Buchan worth reviving? Some condemn him for his anti- Semitism ("a little white-faced Jew ... with an eye like a rattlesnake", is one description in The Thirty-Nine Steps) and his snobbishness (he married a daughter of the English upper classes and lobbied for a title). However, in truth the 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, as he became, was an old-fashioned Scot on the make. And similar charges of anti- Semitism can be levelled against many of his contemporaries.

However much disapproval his political attitudes earn today, nobody can deny he is a gifted story teller. Buchan invented the spy novel which is with us to this day (Graham Greene, Ian Fleming and John le Carré are his direct heirs).

His heroes are gentlemen adventurers whose acts of derringdo take place in far corners of the empire. Their stiff-upper-lip Edwardian values may be ripe for mockery today, but the narrative drive of his thrillers is unsurpassed. The all-action chase scene on the train in The Thirty- Nine Steps has left an indelible impression on me more than 30 years on. Not for nothing did Buchan call them "shockers".

What's more, his heroes have a unique appeal: they are amateurs rather than professionals. We can all relate to them and imagine ourselves in their shoes.

You could argue Buchan has never gone out of fashion. The Thirty-Nine Steps has been continuously in print and until recently was selling more than 10,000 copies a year. Buchan's most recent biographer, Andrew Lownie, says this stems not just from his accessible prose but also his prescience. His novel Greenmantle about an Islamic jihad in Europe was pulled from the radio schedules in July 2005 as too inflammatory, the Three Hostages featured child kidnapping some 40 years before it really happened, and "the mole within" theme in The Thirty-Nine Steps has become a staple of 20thcentury thriller writers.

There is also a moral dimension to his work. Evil is all-pervasive and his heroes are forever battling against the forces of barbarism.

The villains are often respectable members of society, those drawn into the evil global conspiracies are ordinary members of the public, and danger is to be found on the streets of London as well as on the battlefield. Eat your heart out, Jason Bourne. Your exploits at Waterloo station are nothing compared with Richard Hannay's eternal heroism in saving Big Ben from the dastardly bombers.