Retracing Buchan’s 39 steps in Letchworth Garden City

Members of the 500-strong John Buchan Society toured the world’s first Garden City last weekend after enjoying a series of presentations on renowned novelist of ‘The Thirty-Nine Steps’, the inspiration for three Hollywood blockbusters, and one time Governor General of Canada, John Buchan.

Long standing resident and historian, Peter Harkness, presented his case on Buchan’s alleged time spent ‘undercover’ in Letchworth between 1915-16, acknowledging that the fictional Garden City of Biggleswick from Buchan’s 1918 novel ‘Mr Standfast’, was based on Letchworth Garden City.

With the help of our archive, Peter researched the Garden City of 1915 that Buchan would have experienced. Peter’s findings in extracts of old local press, revealed many local traditions of Letchworth which were mirrored with those experiences of fictional spy Cornelius Brand, whilst he investigated suspected espionage in the local community.  

Preceding Peter was a talk by local author of ‘Hertfordshire Secrets and Spies’ Pamela Shields, exploring various Buchan conspiracy theories, followed by Michael Redley, who addressed the strong links between John Buchan and John Bunyan.

The Society then explored the sights of the Garden City, stopping off at our Museum, where they enjoyed our latest temporary exhibition on Letchworth Garden City in World War II, as well as exploring the story of the Letchworth’s development in the Howard and Parker galleries.  

Our guests were also treated to a special display including a number of historic editions of the ‘Mr Standfast’ novel and items from the Buchan family archive, which will remain on display at the museum until the end of April.

View a special online exhibition with extracts from Peter Harkness’ talk at www.gardencitymuseum.org or click here.