When the First World War broke out in 1914, Buchan was ill in bed with a duodenal ulcer, an illness which haunted him all his life. To keep his mind calm while he was out of action, he began to write his first 'shocker', as he called it: a story combining personal and political dramas. This book was The Thirty nine Steps, published in 1915. The author was 39 years of age when he wrote it.
Buchan was the man responsible for the genesis of this archetypal thriller- "innocent man falsely accused, fleeing from both bad guys and police" tale. Hundreds of novels and movies have followed the suit of the The Thirty Nine Steps.
The protagonist, a man of action, bored to death in civilised London, gets excitement started in the form of a stranger at his doorstep with a tale of espionage and danger. He shelters the stranger who unfortunately ends up with a knife in his back soon. Adventure is a foot and the hero stuffs a toothbrush in his pocket and feels to the wilderness of Scotland with the "double antagonists" (bad guys and the police) hot on his trail. It is spiced with remarkable coincidences and long chases. No less than five movies have been made famous being Alfred Hitchcock's The Thirty-Nine Steps.