John Macnab

John Macnab is a 1925 adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan. Plot Three successful friends in their forties confess their ennui with their lives and professions. They are Sir Edward Leithen, lawyer, Member of Parliament and ex-Attorney General; John Palliser-Yeates, banker; and Charles, Earl of Lamancha, a Cabinet Minister. The friends are advised by a doctor that in order to recover their zest for life they should shake themselves out of their predictable lives and spend time doing something really difficult and dangerous. They decide to turn to poaching, an activity both technically challenging and also dangerous, since to be caught and publicly named would inevitably result in a career-ending scandal for such high-profile men. Under the collective name of 'John Macnab', they set up a base in the Highland home of their young friend Sir Archie Roylance, Laird of Crask, disabled war veteran and local Conservative parliamentary candidate.