In an interview on Bestsellers

And The Thirty-Nine Steps is another big adventure. 

Well, it’s another children’s story really, isn’t it? Buchan died the year I was born, he was at the same college as me at Oxford [Brasenose] and he was interested in politics. He became the Governor General of Canada, of course. So, I had a natural interest. But, again, it’s a damn good story. Immortalised by Hitchcock and done again and again. If nobody had ever made it into a film it probably wouldn’t have become as famous but that’s true of so many books. Gone With the Wind, the most successful film probably of all time, made the book one of the most successful books of all time. But this book is about an old-fashioned Second World War hero and it was popular at the time but somehow it still resonates because it’s a damn good story. 

Is there something about Buchan’s political life do you think, that helps to make the book so gripping? 

Insider knowledge. He mixed with Prime Ministers, he mixed with civil servants, so you know that when he mentions these things he’s been there. It has that ring of truth. Like Ian Fleming’s books. Because we know he actually was a spy, well, not a spy, but he worked in intelligence … Because Bond is a farcical character in one way, but there are touches of such accuracy that he comes alive. 

Is that true of your books? That they have the ring of truth because we know you were there? 

I wouldn’t comment.