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Memory Hold-the-Door
John Buchan 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, had a remarkable life and here is his wonderfully written and fascinating memoir. A highly accomplished man and now known by many chiefly as an author, he was also an historian, politican and Governor General of Canada. Buchan served in the army during the Boer war. Becoming a diplomat and well-read historian of the First World War, he settled as Governor General of Canada in 1935 having travelled the world in official posts for the British government. This autobiography was one of John F. Kennedy's favourite books.
170 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1940
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About the author
John Buchan
1,723 books466 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
John Buchan was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.
As a youth, Buchan began writing poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, publishing his first novel in 1895 and ultimately writing over a hundred books of which the best known is The Thirty-Nine Steps. After attending Glasgow and Oxford universities, he practised as a barrister. In 1901, he served as a private secretary to Lord Milner in southern Africa towards the end of the Boer War. He returned to England in 1903, continued as a barrister and journalist. He left the Bar when he joined Thomas Nelson and Sons publishers in 1907. During the First World War, he was, among other activities, Director of Information in 1917 and later Head of Intelligence at the newly-formed Ministry of Information. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1927.
In 1935, King George V, on the advice of Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, appointed Buchan to succeed the Earl of Bessborough as Governor General of Canada and two months later raised him to the peerage as 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan promoted Canadian unity and helped strengthen the sovereignty of Canada constitutionally and culturally. He received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom.
John Buchan was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.
As a youth, Buchan began writing poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction, publishing his first novel in 1895 and ultimately writing over a hundred books of which the best known is The Thirty-Nine Steps. After attending Glasgow and Oxford universities, he practised as a barrister. In 1901, he served as a private secretary to Lord Milner in southern Africa towards the end of the Boer War. He returned to England in 1903, continued as a barrister and journalist. He left the Bar when he joined Thomas Nelson and Sons publishers in 1907. During the First World War, he was, among other activities, Director of Information in 1917 and later Head of Intelligence at the newly-formed Ministry of Information. He was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities in 1927.
In 1935, King George V, on the advice of Canadian Prime Minister R. B. Bennett, appointed Buchan to succeed the Earl of Bessborough as Governor General of Canada and two months later raised him to the peerage as 1st Baron Tweedsmuir. He occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan promoted Canadian unity and helped strengthen the sovereignty of Canada constitutionally and culturally. He received a state funeral in Canada before his ashes were returned to the United Kingdom.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 10, 2012
I picked this up after reading that John F. Kennedy considered it one of his favorite books and after finishing it I can see why. John Buchan, who held the awesomely P.G. Wodehouse-esque peerage of 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, was a pioneering Scottish crime fiction author who became Governor General of Canada back in 1935 when it was necessary to import bored British aristocrats for the position instead of bored local personalities. This is his memoir, and I took away two main things from it. First, he's a seriously great writer; all that Greek and Latin study that the British school system went for in those days really paid off, and I spent a large part of the book paying more attention to his prose than what he was talking about just because of the shining clarity of it. I can see why JFK, who had an expensive prep school education himself, would like it so much. Second, he's one of the all time champion brown-nosers and name-droppers: if there's a way to mention that he Knows People, he will find it, and in the process deliver some of the most preposterous compliments you will ever read. There's just no way for me to convey the awe-inspiring magnitude of the rhetorical handjobs he delivers in the book; each page-long encomium, packed with multilingual poetry, ethereal philosophical musings, and lengthy classical allusions is a work of art that has to be read in full to be properly appreciated. When I get famous I'm definitely going to pay someone to write like this about me. As far as his actual life went, a lot of it struck me as dull (Oxford College back around the turn of the 20th century is almost unbearably uninteresting to an American like me) or bizarrely self-obsessed. He served as a colonial administrator in South Africa during the Boer War, one of the most brutal wars in modern history, and according to the book it seems to have consisted almost entirely of hiking in the veldt, reading Euripides, and loads of smashingly erudite jawing about the Meaning of Empire with the jolly good chaps in the Foreign Office. I guess that's a reasonable takeaway for a person whose entire career seems to have been to hang out with famous people, but it was a big struggle to reconcile Buchan's obvious intelligence with his frequently stunningly banal observations; I got frequent vibes of "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?". Other than that, though, he seems to have had a pretty eventful life, and the ending rumination on his experiences is a highly recommended display of thoughtful erudition in action. He was probably one of the most entertaining dinner guests of all time.
November 29, 2018
Memory Hold-the-Door is the penultimate book in my Buchan of the Month reading project for 2018. You can find out more about the project plus my reading list for 2018 here https://whatcathyreadnext.wordpress.c... and read my introduction to the book here https://whatcathyreadnext.wordpress.c.... Memory Hold-the-Door is also one of the books I read for Nonfiction November.
On 5th February 1940, Buchan wrote to his sister, Anna, ‘I have finished my novel [Sick Heart River] and my autobiography’. The following day, Buchan suffered the cerebral thrombosis that ultimately proved fatal and he died on 12th February. Some time before Buchan had told a correspondent that Memory Hold-the-Door was ‘not an ordinary autobiography or any attempt to tell the unimportant story of my life; but rather an attempt to pick out certain high lights and expound the impressions made upon me at different stages’.
Buchan made a deliberate choice not to write about anyone still alive, including family members, so there are only a few passing mentions of his wife and children in Memory Hold-the-Door. There is, however, this lovely sentiment: ‘I have been happy in many things, but all my other good fortune has been as dust in the balance compared with the blessing of an incomparable wife.’
There are generous and astute pen pictures of contemporary figures of note with whom Buchan came into contact during a life and career that encompassed the law, colonial administration, publishing, journalism, work in military intelligence, service as an MP and as Governor-General of Canada, as well as the writing for which he is now best known. Such figures include Lord Grey, Arthur Balfour, Lord Haig and King George V.
Of the latter, Buchan writes: ‘He did me the honour to be amused by my romances [by which Buchan means his adventure stories and historical novels], and used to make acute criticisms on questions of fact. Of one, a poaching story of the Highlands [which I assume to be John Macnab], he gave me a penetrating analysis, but he approved of it sufficiently to present many copies of it to his friends.’
I particularly enjoyed Buchan’s portrait of his friendship with T. E. Lawrence which to me appears insightful despite Buchan’s own remark that ‘there is no brush fine enough to catch the subtleties of his mind, no aerial viewpoint high enough to being into one picture the manifold of his character’. Buchan recalls, ‘He would turn up without warning at Elsfield [Buchan’s Oxfordshire home] at any time of the day or night on his motor-cycle Boanerges, and depart as swiftly and mysteriously as he came’. Buchan remembers Lawrence’s ‘delightful impishness’ but also his depression following what he considered his failure on behalf of the Arabs. Buchan writes: ‘In 1920 his whole being was in grave disequilibrium. You cannot in any case be nine time wounded, four times in an air crash, have many bouts of fever and dysentery, and finally at the age of twenty-nine take Damascus at the head of an Arab army, without living pretty near the edge of your strength’. Quite.
Most touching are the portraits of friends, many of whom sadly died in the First World War (as did one of Buchan’s brothers, Alastair) . Some of these portraits also appear in Buchan’s book These For Remembrance, originally privately printed.
Elsewhere in Memory Hold-the-Door he writes about his student days (including some high jinks) at Oxford University, his admiration for America and its people, his love of fishing and mountaineering, and his experience of the absurdities of the House of Commons (which I suspect may be largely unchanged). ‘There are seats for only about three-fourths of the members, and these seats are uncomfortable; the ventilation leaves the head hot and the feet cold; half the time is spent dragging wearily in and out of lobbies, voting on matters about which few members know anything; advertising mountebanks can waste a deal of time; debates can be as dull as a social science congress in the provinces…’ However, for balance, he does go on to say that ‘speeches are shorter and of a far higher quality than in any other legislative assembly’.
The book is written in Buchan’s customary effortless prose style and while some of the people he writes about may no longer be familiar to or of interest to the modern reader, it does give a fascinating insight into an admittedly elite stratum of society of that time and Buchan’s personal philosophy and beliefs or his ‘creed’ as he refers to it. About his own writing, he describes himself as a ‘copious romancer’ and ‘a natural story-teller, the kind of man who for the sake of his yarns would in prehistoric days have been given a seat by the fire and a special chunk of mammoth’.
One of Buchan’s last acts as Governor-General of Canada was to sign that country’s entry into the Second World War. With remarkable prescience, he writes in the final chapters of Memory Hold-the-Door of his fears for the future. ‘We have lived by toleration, rational compromise and freely expressed opinion, and we have lived very well. But we had come to take these blessings for granted, like the air we breathed. […] Today we have seen those principles challenged… We have suddenly discovered that what we took for the enduring presuppositions of our life are in danger of being destroyed.’ Indeed, Buchan had remarked earlier in the book that ‘the study of [history] is the best guarantee against repeating it’.
On 5th February 1940, Buchan wrote to his sister, Anna, ‘I have finished my novel [Sick Heart River] and my autobiography’. The following day, Buchan suffered the cerebral thrombosis that ultimately proved fatal and he died on 12th February. Some time before Buchan had told a correspondent that Memory Hold-the-Door was ‘not an ordinary autobiography or any attempt to tell the unimportant story of my life; but rather an attempt to pick out certain high lights and expound the impressions made upon me at different stages’.
Buchan made a deliberate choice not to write about anyone still alive, including family members, so there are only a few passing mentions of his wife and children in Memory Hold-the-Door. There is, however, this lovely sentiment: ‘I have been happy in many things, but all my other good fortune has been as dust in the balance compared with the blessing of an incomparable wife.’
There are generous and astute pen pictures of contemporary figures of note with whom Buchan came into contact during a life and career that encompassed the law, colonial administration, publishing, journalism, work in military intelligence, service as an MP and as Governor-General of Canada, as well as the writing for which he is now best known. Such figures include Lord Grey, Arthur Balfour, Lord Haig and King George V.
Of the latter, Buchan writes: ‘He did me the honour to be amused by my romances [by which Buchan means his adventure stories and historical novels], and used to make acute criticisms on questions of fact. Of one, a poaching story of the Highlands [which I assume to be John Macnab], he gave me a penetrating analysis, but he approved of it sufficiently to present many copies of it to his friends.’
I particularly enjoyed Buchan’s portrait of his friendship with T. E. Lawrence which to me appears insightful despite Buchan’s own remark that ‘there is no brush fine enough to catch the subtleties of his mind, no aerial viewpoint high enough to being into one picture the manifold of his character’. Buchan recalls, ‘He would turn up without warning at Elsfield [Buchan’s Oxfordshire home] at any time of the day or night on his motor-cycle Boanerges, and depart as swiftly and mysteriously as he came’. Buchan remembers Lawrence’s ‘delightful impishness’ but also his depression following what he considered his failure on behalf of the Arabs. Buchan writes: ‘In 1920 his whole being was in grave disequilibrium. You cannot in any case be nine time wounded, four times in an air crash, have many bouts of fever and dysentery, and finally at the age of twenty-nine take Damascus at the head of an Arab army, without living pretty near the edge of your strength’. Quite.
Most touching are the portraits of friends, many of whom sadly died in the First World War (as did one of Buchan’s brothers, Alastair) . Some of these portraits also appear in Buchan’s book These For Remembrance, originally privately printed.
Elsewhere in Memory Hold-the-Door he writes about his student days (including some high jinks) at Oxford University, his admiration for America and its people, his love of fishing and mountaineering, and his experience of the absurdities of the House of Commons (which I suspect may be largely unchanged). ‘There are seats for only about three-fourths of the members, and these seats are uncomfortable; the ventilation leaves the head hot and the feet cold; half the time is spent dragging wearily in and out of lobbies, voting on matters about which few members know anything; advertising mountebanks can waste a deal of time; debates can be as dull as a social science congress in the provinces…’ However, for balance, he does go on to say that ‘speeches are shorter and of a far higher quality than in any other legislative assembly’.
The book is written in Buchan’s customary effortless prose style and while some of the people he writes about may no longer be familiar to or of interest to the modern reader, it does give a fascinating insight into an admittedly elite stratum of society of that time and Buchan’s personal philosophy and beliefs or his ‘creed’ as he refers to it. About his own writing, he describes himself as a ‘copious romancer’ and ‘a natural story-teller, the kind of man who for the sake of his yarns would in prehistoric days have been given a seat by the fire and a special chunk of mammoth’.
One of Buchan’s last acts as Governor-General of Canada was to sign that country’s entry into the Second World War. With remarkable prescience, he writes in the final chapters of Memory Hold-the-Door of his fears for the future. ‘We have lived by toleration, rational compromise and freely expressed opinion, and we have lived very well. But we had come to take these blessings for granted, like the air we breathed. […] Today we have seen those principles challenged… We have suddenly discovered that what we took for the enduring presuppositions of our life are in danger of being destroyed.’ Indeed, Buchan had remarked earlier in the book that ‘the study of [history] is the best guarantee against repeating it’.
December 18, 2014
Beautifully written reminiscences with fascinating sidelights on history. I'd no idea that Buchan had been an assistant to Lord Milner during the Boer War. Or that he'd been a co-owner of the publisher Nelson. And the people he knew! Apparently this book was a favourite of JFK's. I can see why.
October 28, 2021
This autobiography was published in the year of Buchan's death, 1940. His attitudes, his style and his content are now dated but as an insight into the famous people he knew, the contemporary historical events and the manner in which he was raised after 1875 (the year of his birth) it is a truly fascinating story.
April 21, 2023
“He loved his youth, and his youth has become eternal. Debonair and brilliant and brave, he is now part of that immortal England which knows not age or weariness or defeat” - Buchan describing his friend, Raymond Asquith, who died in WW1.
March 28, 2023
John Buchan hat in seinem Leben vieles erreicht. Der erste Baron von Tweedsmuir hat zahlreiche Bücher veröffentlicht, war Mitglied des britischen Parlaments und Generalgouverneur von Canada. Ich habe im letzten Sommer die Biografie von Janet Adam Smith gelesen und war damals beeindruckt von der Disziplin, mit der die verschiedenen Bereiche seines Lebens organisiert hatte. Smith erwähnte in ihrem Buch auch seine Autobiografie Memory Hold-the-door und hat mich neugierig gemacht.
Kann man auf 170 Seiten sein Leben erzählen? Janet Adam Smith hat in ihrer Biografie erwähnt, dass sie Buchans Autobiografie nicht vollständig fand. Ich hatte bei den letzten Büchern, die ich von ihm gelesen hatte, immer wieder die gleichen Kritikpunkte, gerade was die Darstellung der Charaktere betraf und wollte wissen, inwieweit die zur Denkweise des Autors passen.
Ich finde, 170 Seiten sind tatsächlich zu wenig, um über ein Leben zu berichten, besonders wenn es so vollgepackt ist wie das von John Buchan. Aber der Autor hat auch nicht den Anspruch, sein ganzes Leben zu erzählen. Vielmehr nimmt er die für seinen Lebensweg wichtigsten Eckpunkte und berichtet aus dieser Zeit. Dazwischen fehlt natürlich einiges, aber das war nicht der Hauptgrund, warum ich nicht das Gefühl den Menschen wirklich kennen zu lernen. Seine Erzählung wirkte distanziert, als ob er von einem Dritten reden würde und nicht von sich selbst. Privates oder gar Gefühle wurden komplett außen vorgelassen.
Das einzige Gefühl, dass ich zwischen den Zeilen spüren konnte, war eine gewisse Arroganz und Vorurteile gegenüber manchen Personen, die ich so auch in seinen Büchern wiedergefunden habe. Nicht so viel, dass ich keine Bücher mehr von ihm lesen will. Aber doch so, dass ich die restlichen Bücher von ihm, die auf meiner Leseliste stehen, noch kritischer betrachten werde. John Buchan ist einer der Autoren, dessen Bücher ich lieber mochte, als ich noch nicht so viel über den Autor wusste.
Kann man auf 170 Seiten sein Leben erzählen? Janet Adam Smith hat in ihrer Biografie erwähnt, dass sie Buchans Autobiografie nicht vollständig fand. Ich hatte bei den letzten Büchern, die ich von ihm gelesen hatte, immer wieder die gleichen Kritikpunkte, gerade was die Darstellung der Charaktere betraf und wollte wissen, inwieweit die zur Denkweise des Autors passen.
Ich finde, 170 Seiten sind tatsächlich zu wenig, um über ein Leben zu berichten, besonders wenn es so vollgepackt ist wie das von John Buchan. Aber der Autor hat auch nicht den Anspruch, sein ganzes Leben zu erzählen. Vielmehr nimmt er die für seinen Lebensweg wichtigsten Eckpunkte und berichtet aus dieser Zeit. Dazwischen fehlt natürlich einiges, aber das war nicht der Hauptgrund, warum ich nicht das Gefühl den Menschen wirklich kennen zu lernen. Seine Erzählung wirkte distanziert, als ob er von einem Dritten reden würde und nicht von sich selbst. Privates oder gar Gefühle wurden komplett außen vorgelassen.
Das einzige Gefühl, dass ich zwischen den Zeilen spüren konnte, war eine gewisse Arroganz und Vorurteile gegenüber manchen Personen, die ich so auch in seinen Büchern wiedergefunden habe. Nicht so viel, dass ich keine Bücher mehr von ihm lesen will. Aber doch so, dass ich die restlichen Bücher von ihm, die auf meiner Leseliste stehen, noch kritischer betrachten werde. John Buchan ist einer der Autoren, dessen Bücher ich lieber mochte, als ich noch nicht so viel über den Autor wusste.
December 1, 2018
First published in 1940, 'Memory Hold-The-Door' is the autobiography of the writer John Buchan, and was completed shortly before his death in early 1940. This covers his school life and his university life, before touching on his career in law, writing and politics amongst others. He seems to spend a lot of text delivering eulogies on friends from school and university who were lost in the Great War or just after. This is not such a bad thing, as he new a lot of famous people and so his opinion of them is illuminating. The writing style that makes his books so enjoyable is well used here, and so it makes for a really excellent book.
August 9, 2018
John Buchan's lyrical writing has extended to his autobiography. A very insightful book, which only touches on his personal life but mostly talks about his public life. Unfortunately he inherited his father's abilities to preach (he was the son of a minister) and fairly often he preaches his views, and a hundred years later, some are proven to be more accurate than others. An enjoyable book.
December 23, 2018
This is one of my all time favorite books, which i have read and benefitted from the steady, level-headed insights of one of the 20th century's greatest administrators.
did-not-finish
September 24, 2020Not interested in autobiography.
Want to read
June 1, 2023One of jfks favorite books
June 13, 2017
Buchan was a prolific writer of serious history, but is best remembered for what he called his "romances," novels of espionage and adventure, the best know of which may be "The Thirty-Nine Steps" and "Greenmantle". This memoir covers much ground, both personal and historical, from his birth in Scotland in 1875 until his death following the outbreak of WWII in Europe. His interests were broad, ranging from a keen sensitivity of the natural world as a place of human habitation to the complexities of civilization in an era of political and technological ferment.
Buchan served in many roles: civil servant, law, politics (a multi-term Member of Parliament), publishing, writing, and business. An erudite observer of his times and contemporaries he offers brief profiles of men of note with whom he interacted. His characterizations of these people employ an unusual set of metrics, perhaps those of a bygone era, but still convey a useful sense of the personalities involved. Some of the people are familiar to American readers, such as the King of England, Prime Ministers, military leaders, and authors, while others are lesser known here.
The essays are rich throughout, but two seem particularly interesting, especially when viewing the parallels with the American scene of today. The first of these is "An Ivory Tower and its Prospect". Here he examines the withdrawal of many people from the public scene after World War I, feeling they had done their civic duty. He writes: "While plain folk everywhere set themselves sturdily to rebuild their world, the interpreting class, which Coleridge called the 'clerisy,' the people who should have influenced opinion, ran round their cages in vigorous pursuit of their tails. If they were futile they were also arrogant, and it was an odd kind of arrogance, for they had no creed to preach."
Buchan went on to note the disruption of literature, science, and technology as a result of the war.
The other essay of special interest was "My America", his impression of the American people. He made a number of extended trips to the U.S. from New England to California, Pacific Northwest, and South. The essay lauds the people he met with praise, finding them modest, cheerful and helpful. Written before America entered WWII, the favorable tone in addition to being sincere may have carried the thought of encouraging American support in the war against Hitler and his allies. In this regard, he quotes Benjamin Disraeli speaking in Parliament during the American Civil War voicing his belief that "The American democracy is made up of something far more stable, that may ultimately decide the fate of the two Americas and of 'Europe.'
This book came to my attention through a recent appreciation by David Shribman, executive editor of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" which appeared in one of my local newspapers. He referred to Buchan as a "forgotten man" whose "forgotten book" was "worth remembering." He is right.
Buchan served in many roles: civil servant, law, politics (a multi-term Member of Parliament), publishing, writing, and business. An erudite observer of his times and contemporaries he offers brief profiles of men of note with whom he interacted. His characterizations of these people employ an unusual set of metrics, perhaps those of a bygone era, but still convey a useful sense of the personalities involved. Some of the people are familiar to American readers, such as the King of England, Prime Ministers, military leaders, and authors, while others are lesser known here.
The essays are rich throughout, but two seem particularly interesting, especially when viewing the parallels with the American scene of today. The first of these is "An Ivory Tower and its Prospect". Here he examines the withdrawal of many people from the public scene after World War I, feeling they had done their civic duty. He writes: "While plain folk everywhere set themselves sturdily to rebuild their world, the interpreting class, which Coleridge called the 'clerisy,' the people who should have influenced opinion, ran round their cages in vigorous pursuit of their tails. If they were futile they were also arrogant, and it was an odd kind of arrogance, for they had no creed to preach."
Buchan went on to note the disruption of literature, science, and technology as a result of the war.
The other essay of special interest was "My America", his impression of the American people. He made a number of extended trips to the U.S. from New England to California, Pacific Northwest, and South. The essay lauds the people he met with praise, finding them modest, cheerful and helpful. Written before America entered WWII, the favorable tone in addition to being sincere may have carried the thought of encouraging American support in the war against Hitler and his allies. In this regard, he quotes Benjamin Disraeli speaking in Parliament during the American Civil War voicing his belief that "The American democracy is made up of something far more stable, that may ultimately decide the fate of the two Americas and of 'Europe.'
This book came to my attention through a recent appreciation by David Shribman, executive editor of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" which appeared in one of my local newspapers. He referred to Buchan as a "forgotten man" whose "forgotten book" was "worth remembering." He is right.
July 14, 2016
What a perfect bath read! "When he describes a spring meadow he writes almost the best cheerful prose in our literature, prose which is all air and dew and light". Turn of the century British Isles, childhood in the Scottish woods, effortless, obvious, ordinary magic; Oxford, South Africa, Parliament - whatever Buchan turns to, be it fishing or politics, he's as light as a butterfly, he believes in people and adores them, he enjoys portraits in prose, even more so he enjoys the landscapes and the rivers. He's a bit of a medieval scholar, with eyes wide-open - how do the Brits always manage it?! Buchan ached in the war, he lost some vigor and a lot of friends, but somehow he's never noticeably resentful - his sad passages sound theatrical, but all his fishing adventures and bicycle rides through the Oxfordshire ring true. I clang to this guy as the ultimate antidote to the depressed and hopeless Stefan Zweig. Both tell true stories, but only in conjunction the vision becomes three-dimensional. Next up: memoirs of the Zernov family, Russian expats of that same damned age.
November 21, 2014
As a fan of Buchan since boyhood, I recommend this book to all true believers. Doubt it would be of much interest to others except maybe those interested in the pre-war Oxford and Country Houses set which included philosophers, socialites, poets, future cabinet ministers and eccentrics of all classes. videJulian Grenfell . For better or worse, I'm one such -- not of the set, mind you, but interested in it. Still, it's the story of the Scot minister's son making who channeled R.L. Stevenson that draws me the most in this book.
J.B. was a very talented man, not towering. Readers will understand his love of places, his affection for friends (some of whom were transformed into fictional characters (I think Sandy Arbuthnot is drawn from Auberon Herbert). The book was published in America as Pilgrim's Way with Lord Tweedsmuir as the author.
J.B. was a very talented man, not towering. Readers will understand his love of places, his affection for friends (some of whom were transformed into fictional characters (I think Sandy Arbuthnot is drawn from Auberon Herbert). The book was published in America as Pilgrim's Way with Lord Tweedsmuir as the author.
February 9, 2014
Memoirs come in a couple of different flavors. One of the most popular is the score-settling of which Hemingway's Moveable Feast is a prime example.
This one is really the total opposite, which makes it pretty boring. Not just because Buchan is complimenting famous people, but he is complimenting famous people whose relevance is a bit obscure. If you uncle from New Mexico told you about how great his high school classmates were, the connection between you (the reader) and the story would be a little less attenuated than it is here.
This book is probably fine when it was written but the gulf of time has swallowed it up.
Also see: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decod...
This one is really the total opposite, which makes it pretty boring. Not just because Buchan is complimenting famous people, but he is complimenting famous people whose relevance is a bit obscure. If you uncle from New Mexico told you about how great his high school classmates were, the connection between you (the reader) and the story would be a little less attenuated than it is here.
This book is probably fine when it was written but the gulf of time has swallowed it up.
Also see: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decod...
August 2, 2009
This book didn't exist in the database, so I added it, but I'm quite sure it hasn't been published in its own right. Pilgrim's Rest is Buchan's unfinished work on fly-fishing, is included at the end of my edition of Memory-Hold-the-Door. It can't be more than 30 pages or so, and it's a great pity he didn't live long enough to finish it.
It's extremely good.
It's extremely good.
June 30, 2024
An uncommonly rich, insightful, and generous set of reminiscences from a decent man. Full review for John Buchan June at the blog.
February 3, 2013
Always interesting to read the perceptions of past generations. This was no different. Some parts were long winded, but I thought it was a good book.
August 8, 2014
A really good read by one of the best writers of the 20th century.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews