In the bicentenary year of the publication of Sir Walter Scott's first novel Waverley, this is a timely republication of Buchan's work The Man and the Book, originally published in 1925.

Buchan's treatment is sympathetic but perceptive, and at points critical. Whilst acknowledging Scott's weaknesses, the book also touches upon the creative pulse of his great predecessor's achievement. Interspersed with superb extracts exhibiting Scott's narrative arts, as a short introduction to and sampling of Scott, John Buchan's work has never been bettered. To this day, this book remains the ideal advocate and guide to the great Sir Walter Scott.