Customer Reviews

John Macnab

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People who like John Buchan's work will enjoy this adventure. John McNab has the suspense of the Hannay series but with the lightheatedness of an adventure. Three friends meet in the highlands of Scotland and set themselves each a challenge to poach trophy wildlife from the laird. They advise the laird what they will poach and when, in letters signed "John McNab". The laird takes up the challenge to catch the ficticious John McNab before he can carry out the warned of task.

John Buchan's book John MacNab is set in the highlands of Scotland. The three main characters, one a Cabinet minister, another a banker and the last an Attorney-General, are all suffering from boredom which they can only cure by doing something dangerous and difficult. Deciding to try to poach a salmon and two stags in a limited amount of time, risking reputation and a fine, as well as rough handling, they are cured of boredom. An excellent book for anyone who enjoys outdoor adventure novels.

"John MacNab" recounts the glorious story of three bored gentlemen, who one summer in the 1930's, decide to poach salmon and deer from three neighbouring sporting estates. Buchan, a native Scot, beautifully describes the landscapes and characters involved in this wild plan. Enjoyable from beginning to end.

4.0 out of 5 stars What in the World is a Mcnab?, March 3, 2010
By "OleBear" (Oxford, Mississippi, USA) - See all my reviews

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I read a sporting article that referred to a Macnab, and that set me on a journey that ended with my reading of the book "John Macnab." The book is written in British early 20th century style, but it is a light-hearted tale so it is easy reading. I did need a good dictionary in a few places. The book spins a tale about 3 bored-from-success Englishmen in a post-WWI setting. After fighting in the war. they went home, became successful and craved excitement. I'll go no further with the story except to say that they got their excitement. It was adventure and a happy ending without today's super heroes. John Macnab is not for everyone, but I found it an enjoyable change of pace, and I now know what a Macnab is (and would love to try it).

(This review is of the paperback Wordsworth Classics edition published in 1996 by Wordsworth Editions Limited)

"Macnab maun be a fair deevil." - From JOHN MACNAB

Passing by the book lending shelf - basically one step above the round file - at the local YMCA, my eye was caught by a volume, JOHN MACNAB, published by "Wordsworth Classics." Since the novels that I generally read are published by "Utter Rubbish", and since this volume seemed, on inspection, to promise mild amusement, I surreptitiously stuck it in my gym bag. Who knows? Perhaps I might even assimilate a whiff of cultcha.

JOHN MACNAB was penned by Scotsman John Buchan, who was to eventually become Governor General of Canada and 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. Written in 1925, the novel opens with three gentleman friends - lawyer Sir Edward Leithen, banker John Palliser-Yeates, and Cabinet member Charles Lord Lamancha - discovering that they all suffer a common and debilitating malady, a loss of zest for life (for which, nowadays, one would simply be prescribed an antidepressant chemical).

Enlisting the aid of another friend, Scottish landowner Sir Archibald Roylance, the trio contrives a plot to poach game - deer or salmon - from the hereditary lands of three of Archie's Highland neighbors under the guise of an assumed false identity, "John Macnab." But, this is not to be common theft, but rather an exercise in sportsmanship. Letters over Macnab's "signature" are duly sent to the three targeted and unsuspecting lairds setting out the terms of the challenge, which includes monetary wagers. The life-stimulating danger to our three heroes comes from the damage to their reputations should they be caught and their identities revealed. Responses received from the three landowners indicate that they will take extraordinary measures to protect their holdings from trespass. The game is on.

The story begins engagingly enough as the plotters repair to Roylance's lodge to plan their assaults with the help of some local talent, which includes an itinerant young tinker-boy, Fish Benjie, and Archie's veteran stalker, Wattie. Each of the three - Leithen, Palliser-Yeates, and Lamancha - takes responsibility for poaching one of the three targets.

The narrative is successful through the first two acts. Then as more characters are added and the Press becomes involved, the story loses focus and what was, to my mind, an otherwise elegantly simple plot and concept. By the end of the third act, JOHN MACNAB disintegrates into a genteel Highland farce. Of course, it's all quite civilized in the upper-class, British manner. And the charming Scottish dialect is lovingly rendered.

Perhaps the chief value to be gained from this relatively short book (188 pages) read today in 2010 is the window on a way of life struck a heavy blow by the Great War and soon to be eclipsed by World War Two and the subsequent loss of the Empire. Or perhaps I'm just reading too much into it. In any case, I'll return it to the shelf at the Y culturally enriched and mildly, but not greatly, amused.

I read this immediately after reading "The Thirty-Nine Steps" and found "John Macnab" the more enjoyable of the two. Buchan does a great job of describing the Scottish landscape but, in what I suppose is a case of art imitating life, I couldn't help seeing the characters as actors in an old b/w English movie! It made me want to read more about gillies and game-keepers so my next book was "Lady Chatterly's Lover"! I say!