John Buchan

John Burnet of Barns John Buchan

John Burnet of Barns is an 1898 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. It was his second novel, and was first published in serial form in Chambers's JournalPlotThe novel is set in Tweeddale in Scotland and follows the adventures of John Burnet, a relative of the 17th-century historian Gilbert Burnet.[3] The book is written as an autobiography detailing the plot from the viewpoint of the eponymous writer. Burnet is brought up as the only son of a minor landowner in Tweeddale and falls in love with a neighbour's daughter, Marjory Veitch, who was his childhood playmate. He becomes a scholar in Glasgow but returns when he hears his soldier cousin, also named Gilbert Burnet, is trying to court Marjory. They quarrel and Gilbert leaves the country, John's father dies as a result of his anger at Gilbert. John decides to travel and study in the Netherlands at the university in Leyden, there he encounters Gilbert again and they fight a duel which John wins. Gilbert returns to Scotland and John receives a mysterious letter from Marjory indicating she is in difficulty. John returns to find that Gilbert has falsely denounced him as a traitor and he is hunted around the Borders by Gilbert's soldiers. He takes Marjory to shelter with a kinsman while he takes to the hills. Gilbert finds Marjory and tricks her into accompanying him to his estate in the west of Scotland. John follows and helps her escape then confronts Gilbert. They fight again but Gilbert is shot by one of his own soldiers who has a grudge against him. King James II is deposed by William of Orange so John is pardoned and regains his land. He marries Marjory and the story ends... John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, GCMG, GCVO, CH, PC (26 August 1875 - 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief legal career, Buchan simultaneously began his writing career and his political and diplomatic careers, serving as a private secretary to the administrator of various colonies in southern Africa. He eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort during World War I. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1927, but he spent most of his time on his writing career, notably writing The Thirty-Nine Steps and other adventure fiction. In 1935, King George V, on the advice of Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, appointed Buchan to replace the Earl of Bessborough as Governor General of Canada, for which purpose Buchan was raised to the peerage. He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan was enthusiastic about literacy and the development of Canadian culture, and he received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom.