Other editions of book Castle Gay

John Buchan (1st Baron Tweedsmuir) was a Scottish novelist and public servant who combined a successful career as an author of thrillers, historical novels, histories and biographies with a parallel career in public life. At the time of his death he was Governor-General of Canada. Buchan was born in Scotland and educated at Glasgow and Oxford Universities. After a brief career in law he went to South Africa in 1902 where he contributed to the reconstruction of the country following the Boer War. His love for South Africa is a recurring theme in his fiction.On returning to Britain, Buchan built a successful career in publishing with Nelsons and Reuters. During the first world war, he was Director of Information in the British government. He wrote a twenty-four volume history of the war, which was later abridged.Alongside his busy public life, Buchan wrote superb action novels, including the spy-catching adventures of Richard Hannay, whose exploits are described in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, The Three Hostages, and The Island of Sheep.Apart from Hannay, Buchan created two other leading characters in Dickson McCunn, the shrewd retired grocer who appears in Huntingtower, Castle Gay, and The House of the Four Winds; and the lawyer Sir Edward Leithen, who features in the The Power-House,John Macnab, The Dancing Floor, The Gap in the Curtain and Sick Heart River.From 1927 to 1935 Buchan was Conservative M.P. for the Scottish Universities, and in 1935, on his appointment as Governor-General to Canada, he was made a peer, taking the title Baron Tweedsmuir. During these years he was still productive as a writer, and published notable historical biographies, such as Montrose, Sir Walter Scott, and Cromwell.

John Buchan (1st Baron Tweedsmuir) was a Scottish novelist and public servant who combined a successful career as an author of thrillers, historical novels, histories and biographies with a parallel career in public life. At the time of his death he was Governor-General of Canada. Buchan was born in Scotland and educated at Glasgow and Oxford Universities. After a brief career in law he went to South Africa in 1902 where he contributed to the reconstruction of the country following the Boer War. His love for South Africa is a recurring theme in his fiction.On returning to Britain, Buchan built a successful career in publishing with Nelsons and Reuters. During the first world war, he was Director of Information in the British government. He wrote a twenty-four volume history of the war, which was later abridged.Alongside his busy public life, Buchan wrote superb action novels, including the spy-catching adventures of Richard Hannay, whose exploits are described in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Greenmantle, Mr. Standfast, The Three Hostages, and The Island of Sheep.Apart from Hannay, Buchan created two other leading characters in Dickson McCunn, the shrewd retired grocer who appears in Huntingtower, Castle Gay, and The House of the Four Winds; and the lawyer Sir Edward Leithen, who features in the The Power-House,John Macnab, The Dancing Floor, The Gap in the Curtain and Sick Heart River.From 1927 to 1935 Buchan was Conservative M.P. for the Scottish Universities, and in 1935, on his appointment as Governor-General to Canada, he was made a peer, taking the title Baron Tweedsmuir. During these years he was still productive as a writer, and published notable historical biographies, such as Montrose, Sir Walter Scott, and Cromwell.

A tale of kidnapping, politics, suspense-and rugby. When the agents of a foreign power are hunting a Scottish newspaper tycoon, exciting things can happen … and they do! Unusual and delightful Rugby three-quater here gets involved in kidnapping, violence … and romance. Taut with suspense and high adventure are spiced with Buchan’s characteristic warm humour.380 pages, with a reading time of ~6.0 hours (95,144 words), and first published in 1930.

Mr Dickson McCunn laid down the newspaper, took his spectacles from his nose, and polished them with a blue-and-white spotted handkerchief. "It will be a great match," he observed to his wife. "I wish I was there to see. These Kangaroos must be a fearsome lot." Then he smiled reflectively. "Our laddies are not turning out so bad, Mamma. Here's Jaikie, and him not yet twenty, and he has his name blazing in the papers as if he was a Cabinet Minister." Mrs McCunn, a placid lady of a comfortable figure, knitted steadily. She did not share her husband's enthusiasms.

"Castle Gay", first published in 1930, is the second in the three Dickson McCunn books which began with "Huntingtower".Six years after the end of "Huntingtower", the Gorbals Die-Hards--the gang of street boys adopted by the hobbit-like Dickson at the end of the last book--have grown up to make their way in the world. When Jaikie, on holiday from Cambridge after a hard-fought rugby battle with the Australians, and Dougal, with a pocket full of press clippings and a head full of radical political notions, set out together on a walking holiday in the Scottish countryside, the last thing they expect to stumble upon is a kidnapped newspaper magnate (who also happens to be Dougal's boss) and a sinister Eastern European conspiracy. Dougal and Jaikie join forces with a snooping journalist, an aristocratic widow, the girl next door, an exiled prince, two beagles, a terrier, and everyone's favourite grocer, Dickson McCunn, to foil the baddies and save the newspaper magnate's reputation.And in the process, they may just end up saving his soul.

"Castle Gay" is the second of Buchan's three Dickson McCunn books and is set in south west Scotland in the Dumfries and Galloway region in the 1920s. The plot revolves around the self-discovery of a media mogul named Craw, who is firstly the subject of mistaken identity and then the target of Balkan extremists who wish to use his newspapers to influence their political cause. Mr. Craw's journey is overseen by Jaikie Galt, one of the young scamps in "Huntingtower", who is now a Cambridge undergraduate and international rugby player. Jaikie and Craw embark on life-changing travels around the Scottish wilderness, where they both re-evaluate their values and choices in life although they arrive at very different conclusions. There is appreciation of the wilds and the simple lives of the shepherds along with the politics and international intrigue. There is the threat of violence, which is averted through quick thinking, which make the story exciting.

A tale of kidnapping, politics, suspense-and rugby. When the agents of a foreign power are hunting a Scottish newspaper tycoon, exciting things can happen … and they do! Unusual and delightful Rugby three-quater here gets involved in kidnapping, violence … and romance. Taut with suspense and high adventure are spiced with Buchan’s characteristic warm humour.

A tale of kidnapping, politics, suspense-and rugby. When the agents of a foreign power are hunting a Scottish newspaper tycoon, exciting things can happen … and they do! Unusual and delightful Rugby three-quater here gets involved in kidnapping, violence … and romance. Taut with suspense and high adventure are spiced with Buchan’s characteristic warm humour.