Runagates Club

Twelve stories comprise John Buchan`s last collection of short stories, a classic of British interwar short fiction written from 1913 to 1927. Buchan`s most popular character Richard Hannay battles an ancient curse in South Africa in `The Green Wildebeest` and Edward Leithen tags along in an assassins` war in `Sing a Song of Sixpence`. The Runagates Club features First World War spy and code-cracking thrillers `The Loathly Opposite` and `Dr Lartius`; tales of supernatural possession in deepest Wales, comfortable Oxfordshire and the House of Commons, in `The Wind in the Portico`, Fullcircle` and `"Tendebant Manus"`; and stories of survival in the far North and in Depression-era Canada with `Skule Skerry` and `Ship to Tarshish`. There is farce too, in `The Frying-Pan and the Fire` and `"Divus" Johnston`, and the riotous journalistic romp of `The Last Crusade` is the last word on fake news, for all eras. What makes The Runagates Club special is that Buchan designed it as a showcase to bring together the best of his magazine fiction. He repurposed these stories with new beginnings, framing them as after-dinner stories told over the port in a late 1920s private gentleman`s dining-club. This is interwar storytelling at its very best, with a critical introduction by Kate Macdonald, a leading authority on Buchan’s writing.