Prester John - Softcover

Buchan, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847029469 ISBN 13: 9781847029461

Publisher: Echo Library, 2006

Synopsis

Nineteen-year-old David Crawfurd travels from Scotland to South Africa to work as a storekeeper. On the voyage he encounters again John Laputa, the celebrated Zulu minister, of whom he has strange memories. In his remote store David finds himself with the key to a massive uprising led by the minister, who has taken the title of the mythical priest-king, Prester John. David's courage and his understanding of this man take him to the heart of the uprising, a secret cave in the Rooirand. John Buchan wrote Prester John, his sixth novel, in 1910, seven years after he returned from South Africa. It was his first to reach a wide readership across the world, and it established him as the writer of the fast-paced adventures for which he is famous. In this, the only critical edition, David Daniell shows what went into the making of Prester John and explores what sets it apart from the boys' yarns of the period.

About this title

About the Author

John Buchan (1875–1940) was a Scottish novelist and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. After a brief career in law, Buchan simultaneously began writing and his political and diplomatic career, serving as a private secretary to the colonial administrator of various colonies in Southern Africa, and eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort in First World War. Once back in civilian life, Buchan was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities, but spent most of his time on his writing career. He wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps and other adventure fiction. He was in 1935 appointed as governor general by George V, king of Canada, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of Canada Richard Bennett, to replace the Earl of Bessborough as viceroy, and occupied that post until his death in 1940. Buchan proved to be enthusiastic about literacy, as well as the evolution of Canadian culture, and he received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the UK and interred at Elsfield, Oxfordshire.

Edition details

• Publisher: Echo Library
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1847029469
• ISBN 13: 9781847029461
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 144