OUT OF STEP

Last weekend while in London we went to see the stage play The 39 Steps.

This was a rollicking good ‘boys own’ adventure played for laughs. It had none of the seriousness of the original writer John Buchan nor the ‘noir’ of  the Hitchcock film. There were lots of references to Hitchcock though with at one stage a Hitchcock shadow appearing.

The play was a slapstick comedy but the brilliant acting with four actors playing over a hundred parts between them carried the day.

Back ‘home’ in Toronto I downloaded John Buchan’s original novel onto my iPad and am re-reading it after 44 years (it was a compulsory read at school).

I am amazed at how the values of the times (written in 1915) have changed so much.

Buchan was First Baron Tweedsmuir PC GCMG GCVO CH and as well as being a novelist was a historian and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada. He served as a private secretary to the colonial administrator of various colonies in Southern Africa and eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort in the First World War. After the war he was was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities before the Canadian appointment.

What comes through in The 39 Steps is his conservatism, racism, mysogynism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and snobbishness. Not overtly, but just seamlessly integrated into the characters attitudes which in a way makes it more shocking. Contained in the plot line are references to International Jewry instigating financial and political unrest in Europe and looking for war to line their pockets. This remember was 1915 and when looked at in the context of 1930’s Germany the attitude is very disturbing.

Buchan also has his main character refer to the Prime Minister of Greece as a Dago. Quite naturally, not even intending to be offensive, It was just how stiff-upper-lipped British people saw the world at the time.

I'm enjoying reading the book even though the main charcter is a pompous git and, as I said, the values are a bit naff because times and attitudes change. If I were to get on my high horse and refuse to read this then where does it end with appreciating and interpreting art. I'd have to join those tossers who wouldn't keep a golliwog in the house or forbid their children reading Enid Blyton because Big Ears and Noddy shared the same bed at times.