Major-General Sir Richard Hannay is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and further made popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps (and other later film adaptations), very loosely based on Buchan's 1915 novel of the same name. In his autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door, Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, a British Army field marshal and CIGS from Edinburgh who was a spy during the Second Boer War.

Novels

By Buchan

Hannay appears in several novels as a major character, including:

  • The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
  • Greenmantle (1916)
  • Mr Standfast (1919)
  • The Three Hostages (1924)
  • The Island of Sheep (1936)

He also appears as a minor character in:

  • The Runagates Club (1928) short story, 'The Green Wildebeest'
  • The Courts of the Morning (1929)
  • Sick Heart River (1940)

By other authors

Robert J. Harris has written The Thirty-One Kings (2017) which purports to be the beginning of a new series called "Richard Hannay Returns" about his adventures during World War II; however the next book in the series, Castle Macnab (2018), is set in the 1920s.

In Combined Forces (1985), a humorous novel by Jack Smithers, Hannay teams up after World War II with the similar heroes "Sapper"s Bulldog Drummond and Dornford Yates' Jonah Mansel.

  • Thirty-Nine Steps From Baker Street (J. R. Trtek, 2015, 978-1-51715-300-7)

There is also "A Very Dangerous Pursuit (The Richard Hannay Adventures, Book 1)" by Ben Miller, published by Harper Collins on May 21st 2026, ISBN: 9780008747459

Radio, film, television and theatre

Hannay has been portrayed in four film versions of The Thirty Nine Steps respectively, by actors Robert Donat (in the original and most famous film adaptation, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935), Kenneth More and Rupert Penry-Jones (in a 2008 BBC production).

Robert Powell has had the longest association with the role. He first appeared as Hannay in the 1978 film adaptation, and then reprised the role for the ITV series Hannay (1988–1989). He also read an audio book adaptation in 2007.

Orson Welles portrayed Hannay in a radio play of The Thirty-Nine Steps in 1938, as did Glenn Ford in 1948 on Studio One, Herbert Marshall on Suspense in 1952.

The 1973 BBC documentary Omnibus: The British Hero had Christopher Cazenove playing Hannay in a scene from Mr. Standfast, as well as a number of other such heroic characters, including Beau Geste, Bulldog Drummond and James Bond. Barry Foster played Hannay in a 1977 television adaptation of The Three Hostages.

In the 2000s, BBC Radio 4 adapted four of the Hannay books, each starring David Robb: The Thirty-Nine Steps (2001), Greenmantle (2005), Mr Standfast (2008) and The Three Hostages (2009).

Playwright Patrick Barlow's comedic stage adaptation of the 1935 Hitchcock film opened in London's Tricycle Theatre, and after a successful run, transferred to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly. On 15 January 2008, the show made its US Broadway premiere at the American Airlines Theatre; it transferred to the Cort Theatre on 29 April 2008 and then moved to the Helen Hayes Theatre on 21 January 2009, where it ended its run on 10 January 2010. It reopened at off-Broadway venue New World Stages on 25 March 2010. The London show closed on 5 September 2015 after nine years in the West End. In this theatrical adaptation, the character's full name is given as Richard Charles Arbuthnot Hannay.

Character biography based on the Buchan canon

As revealed through the various novels, Richard Hannay was born in Scotland about 1877; his father was Scottish and had German business partners. He was brought up to speak German pretty fluently. At the age of six he joins his father in South Africa. and serves as an intelligence officer at Delagoa Bay in the Boer War. He goes to England in 1914,