John Buchan

Grey Weather John Buchan

Greenmantle is a tale of intrigue and adventure set during the First World War. It features Richard Hannay, hero of the author's earlier novel The Thirty-Nine Steps. As he travels through Europe to foil a German plot and find an Islamic Messiah, he is joined by three more of Buchan's heroes: Peter Pienaar, a Boer scout; John Blenkiron, an American determined to fight the Kaiser; and Sandy Arbuthnot (Greenmantle), modeled on Lawrence of Arabia. The intrepid friends move in disguise through Germany to Constantinople to the Russian border to confront their enemies-the grotesque Stumm and the evil beauty Hilda von Einem. [Major Hannay's narrative of this affair has been published under the title of The Thirty-nine Steps.]