Mr. Standfast
by John Buchan
When Richard Hannay, the hero of Thirty-nine Steps, was mentioned by the British intelligence chief of the Western Front at a critical moment in the Battle of France, he had little idea that his contribution to the war effort would be far more important than commanding his brigade in Flanders. In his strange adventure, he returns from the idyllic mansion in the Cotswolds to the provincial Garden City, where pacifism is the order of the day, to the attacked Scotland and London, and from there to the trenches and the greatest battle of World War I, in order to solve the most sinister conspiracies "with the aim of defeating the Allies in the West". There, in destruction and misery, he finds both love and a terrifying sight of chemical warfare in front of a charming dã©noument in the sky above the battlefield.
