READERS whose familiarity with John Buchan's life and works ends on the closing page of "Mr. Standfast" or at the final frame of Hitchcock's The Thirty-Nine Steps may find it difficult to believe that their author, beyond his position as the acknowledged father of the modern spy thriller, led a life that ranged widely across the landscape of British politics and culture. Buchan's literary career, one that started almost as an afterthought, was itself astonishing, comprising a hundred titles that ranged from the thrillers for which he is now best known to children's books, from biographies to romances, from poetry to screenplays. But Buchan's literary output represented only a fraction of his life experience; he moved in the uppermost reaches of British political, military, and cultural affairs, acting as speechwriter and confidant to two Prime Ministers, and counting luminaries as varied as Virginia Woolf, Robert Graves, and T. E. Lawrence as his colleagues and friends. He served as Director of Information during World War I and later as a member of Parliament, ending his long career as the beloved Governor-General of Canada. Andrew Lownie's biography-the first in over thirty years - reveals a character as complex and fascinating as any in his great quartet of thrillers starring master spy Richard Hannay. He succeeds in the daunting task of retelling Buchan's life in all its variety, breadth, and complexity. Based on exhaustive research this admirable biography produces a comprehensive portrait of one the last century's most engaging and fascinating figures.