''The Runagates Club'' is a
1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...
collection of short stories by the Scottish author
John Buchan
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 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 ...
. The collection consists of twelve tales presented as reminiscences of members of ''The Runagates Club'', a London dining society. Several of the stories are recounted by recurrent characters in
Buchan
Buchan is an area of north-east Scotland, historically one of the original provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. It is now one of the six committee areas and administrative areas of Aberdeenshire Council, Scotland. These areas were created by th ...
’s fiction, including
Richard Hannay
Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and further made popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film '' The 39 Steps'' (and other later film adaptations), very loosely b ...
,
Sandy Arbuthnot
Ludovic "Sandy" Gustavus Arbuthnot, later 16th Lord Clanroyden is a fictional character who appears in various books by John Buchan in the Richard Hannay series. These books include ''Greenmantle'', ''The Three Hostages'', ''The Courts of the Mor ...
,
John Palliser-Yeates
John Palliser-Yeates is a fictional character created by John Buchan. He appears in several Buchan novels, notably ''John Macnab''.
He is a banker and sportsman, and an old school friend of Edward Leithen and Charles Lamancha.
Appearances
*''John ...
,
Charles Lamancha
Charles Lamancha is a fictional character who appears in several novels by John Buchan.
He was a war veteran, a noble and a Minister of the Crown. He is a good friend of John Palliser-Yeates and Edward Leithen.
Appearances
*''John Macnab'' (1925 ...
, and
Edward Leithen
Sir Edward Leithen is a fictional character in several of John Buchan's novels: ''The Power-House'', ''John Macnab'', '' The Dancing Floor'', '' The Gap in the Curtain'' and ''Sick Heart River''. These were published over a number of years, the fir ...
.
Contents
The stories are entitled:
* ''The Green Wildebeest'': Sir Richard Hannay’s Story
* ''The Frying Pan and the Fire'': The Duke of Burminster’s Story
** 1. ''The Frying-Pan''
** 2. ''The Fire''
* ''Dr Lartius'': Mr Palliser-Yeates’s Story
* ''The Wind in the Portico'': Mr Henry Nightingale's Story
* ''’Divus’ Johnston'': Lord Lamancha's Story
* ''The Loathly Opposite'': Major Oliver Pugh's Story
* ''Sing a Song of Sixpence'': Sir Edward Leithen's Story
* ''Ship to Tarshish'': Mr Ralph Collatt's Story
* ''Skule Skerry'': Mr Anthony Hurrell's Story
* ''
'Tendebant Manus':'' Sir Arthur Warcliffe's Story
* ''The Last Crusade'': Mr Francis Martendale's Story
* ''Fullcircle'': Mr Martin Peckwether's Story
Title
The book's title alludes to the "execrable" quality of the Runagates Club's food and wine. According to Buchan's preface, it derives from Psalm 68: "He letteth the runagates continue in scarceness."
Critical reception
The stories are "pleasingly diverse in subject, incident and treatment" according to a contemporary reviewer in the ''
Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
''.
Brian Stableford
Brian Michael Stableford (born 25 July 1948) is a British academic, critic and science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped ...
praised "The Green Wildebeest" as "a well-executed story", and described "Skule Skerry", "Tendebant Manus", and "Fullcircle" as "tales of subtle hauntings, told with a delicacy with Buchan rarely bothered to bring to his hurriedly-penned novels."
[Stableford, Brian, "Buchan, John, (1st Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield)", in ]David Pringle
David Pringle (born 1 March 1950) is a Scottish science fiction editor and critic.
Pringle served as the editor of ''Foundation'', an academic journal, from 1980 to 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective whic ...
, ''St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers'' (London: St. James Press, 1998), pp. 104
Andrew Lownie
Andrew James Hamilton Lownie (born November 1961) is a British biographer and literary agent.
Biography
He was educated at Westminster School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, and was President of the Cambridge Union in Easter term 1984. He has ...
, in ''John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier'' (2013) noted that this work, Buchan's only collection of post First World War short stories, is unique in including all of his major characters. He held the stories to be beautifully self-contained, and to demonstrate "the usual Buchan themes of an unwitting amateur drawn into adventure and the fragile division between civilisation and chaos".
References
External links
*
''The Runagates Club''at
Project Gutenberg Australia
Project Gutenberg Australia, abbreviated as PGA, is an Internet site which was founded in 2001 by Colin Choat. It is a sister site of Project Gutenberg, though there is no formal relationship between the two organizations. The site hosts free eboo ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Runagates Club, The
Works by John Buchan
1928 short story collections