THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

1936. London: Hodder and Stoughton, (1936). Original green cloth, with dust jacket.

First British Edition, published two days after the American edition which was titled THE MAN FROM THE NORLANDS. This was the fifth and last of Buchan's Richard Hannay mysteries, following THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (1915), GREENMANTLE (1916), MR STANDFAST (1919) and THE THREE HOSTAGES (1924). (It is not to be confused with Buchan's 1919 book that also bears the title THE ISLAND OF SHEEP, by "Cadmus and Harmonia," pseudonyms for Buchan and his wife, which is a symposium of political, economic and social issues.) THE ISLAND OF SHEEP is Johnnie Buchan's [JB's son's] book: dedicated to him, full of his enthusiasm for birds and for wild places, and with a thirteen-year-old boy, Dick Hannay's son, added to the cast... The Island of Sheep is a name for the Færoes, where he and Johnnie spent a fortnight in 1932. The plot involves happenings in a Rhodesian kraal, a Chinese jade tablet with a strange inscription... Peter John Hannay outwits his pursuers when he remembers that pink-foot geese, when disturbed, tend to move nearer the intruder. [Smith] This volume is in fine, bright condition; the dust jacket, which bears a multicolor map of the island, is very good (with several small edge-chips). Blanchard A115.