The Return of John Macnab

“Andrew Greig writes out of a profound knowledge and love of the Scottish hills, there’s no doubt about that. He also loves a good story, and the plot of THE RETURN OF JOHN MACNAB powers along, hauling the reader at a great pace up and down various hills, in and out of several icy peatdark rivers, round and round a couple of whisky-drenched Highland dancefloors.

The setting is as romantic, the story as compelling, the characters as quirky and memorable as any of John Buchan’s classic yarns. But the novel is pervaded by a thoroughly modern sensibility: Greig’s characters intervene dramatically in important contemporary issues like land access, absentee landownership, bloodsports and sexual politics.

In other words, the author’s head is in the Highlands as well as his heart. THE RETURN OF JOHN MACNAB is likely to set your heart racing as well as your brain whirring: not many novels can boast that these days.

Cross John Buchan with Iain Banks and you might get close to the fell of this book. But Greig has a secret weapon (like several of his characters) – a poet’s eye for the telling detail, the striking image. “Save and resume” his narrator instructs as the story scrolls on to its bittersweet conclusion. I say: read and savour” – Duncan McLean, author of BLACKDEN and BUNKER MAN

THE RETURN OF JOHN MACNAB was published on 13th June 1996 by Headline.