This book could not have been written without the assistance of many people, whose efforts on my behalf I gratefully acknowledge here.
First and foremost, my husband, Charlie Wide, did all he could to encourage me, including submitting with impressively good grace to JB-related conversations almost daily over four years. He read the manuscript more than once and I could never have cut it down to a manageable length without being able to rely on his good sense and ability to see the big picture.
My brothers and sisters – Deborah Stewartby, Toby Tweedsmuir, Edward Buchan, Laura Crackanthorpe and James Buchan – saw the point of what became known as ‘the Project’ from the start and assisted me in many crucial ways. The children of the Reverend John Buchan could not have exhibited more warm-hearted family cooperation than I received. JB’s works are out of copyright and can be freely reproduced, but I thank Toby for giving me permission to quote from Susie’s writings.
My son, Tommy Wide, read the manuscript, making helpful suggestions, and also rendered into elegant English the Greek and Latin quotations that occur all too frequently in JB’s non-fiction. My daughter, Emily Thomas, and her husband, Will, showed keen understanding and interest, while Henry, Alexander and Hector Thomas provided welcome and recuperative diversion.
Other members of the family played a significant part: Sauré Tweedsmuir, William’s widow, lent me many of the images that appear in the book and gave me treasured books; the late Ian Stewartby provided insights into JB’s political life and Susie’s widowhood; David Crackanthorpe made me aware of the importance of both John Lane and F.S. Oliver; Perdita Buchan Connolly sent me an illuminating essay she had written about Susie; Emma Lambe made available Willie Buchan’s invaluable letters; Edmund Fairfax-Lucy showed me private papers belonging to his parents, Alice and Brian; Susie Selkirk and Harry Douglas-Hamilton did the same for Susie’s father and Harry’s grandfather, Johnnie; and David and Benjamin Buchan answered questions about their father, Alastair. Andrew Elder read that part of the manuscript referring to JB’s brain operations. I had fruitful conversations with Lisa Buchan, Elizabeth Buchan and Laura Warrender, and I benefited enormously from the opportunity to talk with Dame Frances Campbell-Preston and Peggy Peyton-Jones, both of whom knew JB.
James Redfern generously lent me all his grandfather’s papers, while David and Sir Simon Boyle made available to me the letters their father, Captain John Boyle, sent home from Canada. Lord Ironside invited me to look through diaries belonging to his father, and Mark Laing enabled me to see private correspondence between JB and Sir Alexander Grant.
I owe an enormous debt to those scholars with an interest in JB. They are a most collegiate group of people, and could not have encouraged me more: in particular, Dr Michael Redley and William Galbraith, for many conversations and for reading parts of the manuscript; Dr Kate Macdonald and Dr Peter Henshaw for sending me academic papers they had written; Dr Roger Clarke for conversations concerning JB’s journalism; the Reverend Dr David Weekes for his work on JB’s religion; and Andrew Lownie and Dr Eileen Stewart for helpful advice. Professor Andrew D. Roberts, the son of Janet Adam Smith, lent me some papers belonging to his mother and alerted me to the rest now deposited in the National Library of Scotland, while Professor David S. Katz pointed me to work he has done on pre-Great War Turkey and Greenmantle.
A book of this nature would be quite impossible without the professional help of archivists and librarians. I should like to thank in particular Olive Geddes and her staff, especially Robbie Mitchell, at the National Library of Scotland; Paul Banfield, Heather Home and Jeremy Heil at the Archives at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario; Dr Alvan Bregman and Jillian Sparks at the W.D. Jordan Library, also at Queen’s; Frank Bowles, Superintendent of the Manuscripts Reading Room, and his staff at Cambridge University Library; Julie Crocker at the Royal Archives; Jill Delaney at Library and Archives, Canada; and Jerry Fielder and Julie Grahame at the Yousuf Karsh Archive.
Also very helpful were the archivists of the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Brasenose College, Oxford; the British Institute, Florence; the John J. Burns Library, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts; the Centre of Research Collections at the University of Edinburgh; the Ede and Ravenscroft Archives, Waterbeach; the Fife Cultural Trust (Kirkcaldy Local Studies); the John Hay Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island; Hutchesons’ Grammar School, Glasgow; the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, Massachusetts; the Middle Temple Archives, London; the National Archives, Kew; Oxfordshire History Centre, Oxford; the Parliamentary Archives, London; Queen Mary University of London Archives; the Rauner Library, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire; the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park, New York and the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, Independence, Missouri.
I read many of the secondary sources in Cambridge University Library, and would like to express my thanks to the Librarian, Dr Jessica Gardner, and her colleagues.
I acknowledge, with gratitude, the permission to reproduce material from their collections from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Syndics of Cambridge University Library, and the Yousuf Karsh Archive.
I am indebted to the members of the John Buchan Society, which has kept the flame burning brightly since 1979; in particular the Chairman, Kenneth Hillier, Drs William and Andrena Telford, and Peter Thackeray. The Society has given me a platform for airing some of my research in the last few years, which has been of great assistance to me. I thank the Chairman and Council of the Society for permission to quote from several articles in The John Buchan Journal.
The memory of John Buchan is also cherished and promoted at the John Buchan Story Museum in the Chambers Institution in Peebles, and I am grateful to the Trustees and to the Management Committee, especially Ian Buckingham and Dr Peter Worthington. I acknowledge with thanks permission to reproduce a number of the images deposited at the Museum.
Kate and Richard Love, Julia Elcock and Richard Buxton, Amanda Buchan and Rosalind Wild gave me much-needed hospitality on my travels; my researches would have been far less agreeable without their open-hearted generosity and enduring interest in my sometimes rather arcane preoccupations.
There are many other people who have helped me in one way or another – answering specific queries, sending me information, lending books, making domestic life run smoothly, or simply encouraging me to talk about JB. I should like to thank Baroness Bakewell, John Ballantyne, Adam Begley, Liz Boxall, David Brearly, Jane Brown, Isabel Buchanan, Nancy Champion, Dr Jim Cox, Peter and Ray Cox, Alan Crombie, the Reverend Dr Karen Dimock, Taylor Downing, Carl Folker, Sir James Graham, Andy Haswell, Richard and Cressida Inglewood, Charles and Kate Ironside, Louis Jebb, Igor Judge, Lori Knoll, Alex Leith, Alexander McCall Smith, Dr Daniel Maccannell, Dr Christopher McCreery, Christine MacIntyre, Sir William Macpherson of Cluny, Sandy McCracken, Andrew Martin, Simon Milne, Peter Morrell, Cynthia Ogilvie, Reg Paintin, Anna Pavord, Philip Potterton, Alexander Reford, Jean Ann Scott Miller, Anne Simpson, Sandra Smith, Jan Usher and Bob Watson.
I should like to thank my literary agent, Felicity Bryan, as well as Michael Fishwick and his colleagues at Bloomsbury, in particular Sarah Ruddick, Lilidh Kendrick, Holly Ovenden, Francesca Sturiale, Richard Mason and Douglas Matthews. The collaboration has been a very happy one.
Finally, I was enormously helped by a grant from the Society of Authors’ Foundation, which enabled me to undertake research abroad. It would have been difficult to complete the task without it.