The Thirty-Nine Steps is a classic political thriller and one of the earliest examples of the “man-on-the-run” plot archetype. Set on the eve of World War I, expatriate Scotsman Richard Hannay has just returned from a stint in Rhodesia and settled in London when he encounters an American freelance spy who tells of an anarchist plot to assassinate the Greek Premier and destabilize Europe.  After two murders in his building he is forced to flee to southwest Scotland but is pursued by police,who suspect his involvement.  After numerous surprising twists of fate, chases and escapes, we find him with a group of British military in a coastal village in Kent descending the thirty-nine steps down a path in a cliff to apprehend a group of German spies about to abscond with key British secrets. Serialized in Blackwood’s Magazine and published in book form in 1915, the story was a big hit with the soldiers in the trenches and the general public. It has been adapted for radio five times and four times for the cinema and television, most recently in2008 by the BBC, and appears on the BBC’s Big Read poll of the “best-loved novels” in the UK.

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