The spy story is the perfect formula for a gripping read.

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Reading lists

The greatest spy thrillers in literature

A BBC Radio collection of full-cast dramatisations

The 39 Steps and Other Richard Hannay Adventures

Five BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of John Buchan’s espionage thrillers featuring gentleman spy Richard Hannay

Five BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of John Buchan's espionage thrillers featuring gentleman spy Richard Hannay 
 
The forerunner to James Bond, secret agent Richard Hannay is a thoroughly British action hero, pursuing ruthless villains, foiling deadly plans and risking life and limb for his country. This gripping collection encompasses all five of Hannay's adventures, adapted for radio with superb casts including Tom Baker, Clive Merrison, Stuart Milligan, Jasmine Hyde and Patrick Malahide. 
 
The 39 Steps 
When a man is murdered in Richard Hannay's London flat, he goes on the run pursued by the police - and a gang of German spies intent on recovering a secret notebook which could destroy the British naval fleet. Starring David Robb as Hannay. 
 
Greenmantle 
1915. Summoned to the War Office, Hannay is told of an impending Holy War in the East. Greenmantle - once a mythical figure, now made flesh - is preparing to lead a great Islamic army against the infidel English. Hannay's mission: to identify Greenmantle and destroy him. Starring David Robb as Hannay. 
 
Mr Standfast 
Recalled from the Western Front, Hannay is ordered to pose as a pacifist and sent to Glasgow. Along the way, he meets a teenage Secret Service agent who will change the course of his life. Starring David Robb as Hannay. 
 
The Three Hostages 
When a gang of international criminals kidnaps a trio of hostages, the Secret Service brings Hannay out of retirement to track them down. But the mission will pit him against an adversary who can control men's minds... Starring David Robb as Hannay. 
 
The Island of Sheep 
A chance meeting in a train and a villainous vendetta shake Richard Hannay out of a complacent middle age, as dangerous men go in pursuit of treasure. Starring Nigel Anthony as Hannay. 
 
'The BBC radio sound effects department is on top form, adding thrills that no printed book can rival' The Times 
 
Please note: the vintage stories in this collection reflect the attitudes of their time.

The BBC radio sound effects department is on top form, adding thrills that no printed book can rival

Five BBC Radio 4 dramatisations of John Buchan's espionage thrillers featuring gentleman spy Richard Hannay 
 
The forerunner to James Bond, secret agent Richard Hannay is a thoroughly British action hero, pursuing ruthless villains, foiling deadly plans and risking life and limb for his country. This gripping collection encompasses all five of Hannay's adventures, adapted for radio with superb casts including Tom Baker, Clive Merrison, Stuart Milligan, Jasmine Hyde and Patrick Malahide. 
 
The 39 Steps 
When a man is murdered in Richard Hannay's London flat, he goes on the run pursued by the police - and a gang of German spies intent on recovering a secret notebook which could destroy the British naval fleet. Starring David Robb as Hannay. 
 
Greenmantle 
1915. Summoned to the War Office, Hannay is told of an impending Holy War in the East. Greenmantle - once a mythical figure, now made flesh - is preparing to lead a great Islamic army against the infidel English. Hannay's mission: to identify Greenmantle and destroy him. Starring David Robb as Hannay. 
 
Mr Standfast 
Recalled from the Western Front, Hannay is ordered to pose as a pacifist and sent to Glasgow. Along the way, he meets a teenage Secret Service agent who will change the course of his life. Starring David Robb as Hannay. 
 
The Three Hostages 
When a gang of international criminals kidnaps a trio of hostages, the Secret Service brings Hannay out of retirement to track them down. But the mission will pit him against an adversary who can control men's minds... Starring David Robb as Hannay. 
 
The Island of Sheep 
A chance meeting in a train and a villainous vendetta shake Richard Hannay out of a complacent middle age, as dangerous men go in pursuit of treasure. Starring Nigel Anthony as Hannay. 
 
'The BBC radio sound effects department is on top form, adding thrills that no printed book can rival' The Times 
 
Please note: the vintage stories in this collection reflect the attitudes of their time.

The Thirty-Nine Steps

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'My guest was lying sprawled on his back. There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor' 
Richard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his life in London. But then a murder is committed in his flat, just days after a chance encounter with an American who had told him about an assassination plot which could have dire international consequences. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland where he will need all his courage and ingenuity to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. 
 
The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

John Buchan (1875-1940) was born in Perth, Scotland and educated at Oxford where he published five books and won several awards, including one for poetry.  He went on to be a barrister, a member of parliament, a soldier, a publisher, a historical biographer, and - in 1935 - he became the Govenor-General of Canada.  Today he is best remembered as the author of his perennially popular adventure novels.

'My guest was lying sprawled on his back. There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor' 
 
Richard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his life in London. But then a murder is committed in his flat, just days after a chance encounter with an American who had told him about an assassination plot which could have dire international consequences. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland where he will need all his courage and ingenuity to stay one step ahead of his pursuers. 
 
The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

The original and best adventure story ever told, with spies, thrilling chase scenes and explosions

Richard Hannay is, like his American brother Philip Marlowe, a modern knight errant. Charging through a hypocritical world, he is a seeker after truth with a boundless love of nature, a liking for simple pleasures and a hatred of pettiness and snobberies.... Buchan's novels are eerily resonant with today's troubles... Hannay is a hero for all times

The father of the modern espionage adventure

Buchan makes superb use of wild landscapes in this economical and gripping story

Go into a bookshop today, pick up The Thirty-Nine Steps and I guarantee you will read it to the end. There is random and graphic violence, there is clear and present evil, eyes that are hooded 'like a bird of prey' - and a man 'skewered to the floor by a long knife through his heart'

John Buchan was born in Perth in 1875, the son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister, and educated at Glasgow. He gained a first at Oxford University, where he began writing, producing two volumes of essays, four novels and two collections of stories and poems before the age of twenty-five. He worked briefly as a lawyer, then served as a private secretary in the colonial administration of South Africa after the Boer War. During the war he worked both as a journalist and at Britain's War Propaganda Bureau, eventually becoming Director of Information. He published his most popular novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps, in 1915, and it has never since been out of print. In 1935 Buchan was elevated to the peerage, becoming Baron Tweedmuir of Elsfield, and later that year was appointed Governor General of Canada by King George V. He died on 11 February 1940.

Discover the original and best adventure story ever told. 
 
 ‘The father of the modern espionage’ Sunday Times 
 
May 1914. Britain is on the eve of war with Germany. Richard Hannay is living a quiet life in London, but after a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger he stumbles into a hair-raising adventure - a desperate hunt across the country and against the clock, pursued by the police and a cunning, ruthless enemy. Hannay's life and the security of Britain are in grave peril, and everything rests on the solution to a baffling enigma: what are the thirty-nine steps? 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY STELLA RIMINGTON

The Strange Adventures of Mr Andrew Hawthorn & Other Stories

John Buchan was born in Perth. He was an Imperial statesman, MP, Barrister, and soldier as well as a writer. His first success as an author came with Prester John in 1910, followed by a series of adventure thrillers, or 'shockers' as he called them, all characterized by their authentically rendered backgrounds, romantic characters, their atmosphere of expectancy and world-wide conspiracies, and the author's own enthusiasm. 
 
Giles Foden was born in Warwickshire in 1967. His family moved to Malawi in 1972 where he was brought up. His first novel, the acclaimed The Last King of Scotland (1998), is set during Idi Amin's rule of Uganda in the 1970s and won the Whitbread First Novel Award.

In 'The Strange Adventures of Mr Andrew Hawthorn' and the other stories in this collection, peculiar worlds of temptation, adventure or iniquity are perilously close at hand. Mr Hawthorn himself steps outside to allow his porridge to cool and disappears for five years and more, a Glasgow grocer is shipwrecked and ultimately worshipped as a god, a young mathematician discovers an entirely new aspect of reality and becomes terrified by what he finds there, and an ageing sinner clings grimly, weakly to a hard-won life of decency: John Buchan in each demonstrating his abilities as a gripping writer of short stories. 
 
In his introduction, Giles Foden explores Buchan's innate sense of the fascination held by sudden jeopardy and vanished comfort, and the themes of the will and fate in his work.

Greenmantle

The fate of Africa lies with one man. And he must be stopped at all costs...

John Buchan was born in Perth. His first success as an author came with Prester John in 1910, followed by a series of adventure thrillers, or 'shockers' as he called them, all characterized by their authentically rendered backgrounds, romantic characters, their atmosphere of expectancy and world-wide conspiracies, and the author's own enthusiasm. There are three main heroes: Richard Hannay, whose adventures are collected in The Complete Richard Hannay; Dickson McCunn, the Glaswegian provision merchant with the soul of a romantic, who features in Huntingtower, Castle Gay and The House of the Four Winds; and Sir Edward Leithen, the lawyer who tells the story of John MacNab and Sick Heart River, John Buchan's final novel.

In Greenmantle (1916) Richard Hannay, hero of The Thirty-Nine Steps, travels across war-torn Europe in search of a German plot and an Islamic Messiah. He is joined by three more of Buchan's heroes: Peter Pienaar, the old Boer Scout; John S. Blenkiron, the American determined to fight the Kaiser; and Sandy Arbuthnot, Greenmantle himself, modelled on Lawrence of Arabia. The intrepid four move in disguise through Germany to Constantinople and the Russian border toface their enemies: the grotesque Stumm and the evil beauty of Hilda von Einem.

Everyman's Children's Classics has more than 50 titles in print. It offers the finest editions currently available of the world's greatest children's books in handsome, full cloth hardcover bindings. 
 
The library brings back into print major illustrators such as Ivan Bilibin, Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, Nicolas Bentley, Walter Crane, Aubrey Beardsley, Edward Ardizzone, W.Heath Robinson and Mervyn Peake.

Jonathan Swift

Robert Louis Stevenson

Arthur Conan Doyle

H.G. Wells

John Buchan

Tony Turner

Kenny Blyth

Michael Bertenshaw

Gulliver’s Travels, Kidnapped, The Sign of Four, The War of the Worlds & The Thirty-Nine Steps

Unabridged readings of five gripping adventure stories 
 
This thrilling anthology contains five action-packed tales of incredible journeys, a murderous treasure hunt, invaders from outer space and international espionage - all read in full by some of the very best voice actors. With over 33 hours of exciting listening, tracked by chapter, let yourself get carried away with these classic adventures. 
 
Gulliver's Travels 
Jonathan Swift's dark satire following Lemuel Gulliver's fantastical travels through strange and exotic lands. Read by Tony Turner. 
 
Kidnapped 
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story of David Balfour's youthful adventures on the high seas and across the Scottish Highlands. Read by Kenny Blyth. 
 
The Sign of the Four 
Arthur Conan Doyle's intriguing locked-room mystery follows Holmes and Watson as they uncover a murky tale of theft, betrayal and greed. Read by Kenny Blyth. 
 
The War of the Worlds 
HG Wells' iconic sci-fi story about the battle to save Earth from a Martian invasion. Read by Michael Bertenshaw. 
 
The Thirty-Nine Steps 
John Buchan's stirring tale of derring-do, secrets and spies set in the shadows of war. Read by Kenny Blyth. 
 
Credits: 
 
Gulliver's Travels 
Read by Tony Turner 
Produced by Ross Burman 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 1 November 2019 
 
Kidnapped 
Read by Kenny Blyth 
Produced by Ciaran Bermingham 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 24 August 2019 
 
The Sign of the Four 
Read by Kenny Blyth 
Produced by Ciaran Bermingham 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 22 August 2019 
 
The War of the Worlds 
Read by Michael Bertenshaw 
Produced by Martha Littlehailes 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 23 August 2019 
 
The Thirty-Nine Steps 
Read by Kenny Blyth 
Produced by Karen Holden 
First broadcast on BBC Sounds, 1 November 2019 
 
(p) 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd 
© 2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

BBC Classics: Adventure Collection

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