The 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.