THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS
by
JOHN BUCHAN
TO THOMAS ARTHUR NELSON
(LOTHIAN AND BORDER HORSE)
My Dear Tommy.
You and I have long cherished an affection for that elemental type of tale which Americans call the ‘dime novel‘ and which we know as the ‘shocker‘ - the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible.
- P11