No-man's-land

John Buchan (1875-1940), 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, would have filled a respectable page in history even if he had never written a word of fiction. He led a busy and useful life as colonial administrator, barrister, publisher, intelligence officer, historian, Member of Parliament, and finally Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada. But he is best remembered as the author of the prototypical espionage tale, The Thirty-Nine Steps, its sequels, some excellent historical novels, and several memorable short tales of horror and suspense. The Watcher by the Threshold 1902 The Watcher by the Threshold William Blackwood & Sons, London, 1902 Buchan began his writing career while a student at Oxford in the 1890s, turning out novels partly from a need for financial support and partly from an innate love of storytelling. No Man’s Land—which could be classified either as a long short story or short novel—was first published in the January 1899 issue of Blackwood’s Magazine, and later reprinted as one of the stories in Buchan’s 1902 book The Watcher by the Threshold. The story bears several of the hallmarks of Buchan’s later thrillers, particularly the concise but vivid descriptions of scenery, local color, and topography that give a grounded and believable feeling to fantastic adventures, and the emphasis on flight and pursuit in desolate country.

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