Peter Pienaar is a character from John Buchan's series of Richard Hannay books. He is described by Hannay as being "five foot ten, very thin and active, and as strong as a buffalo [with] pale blue eyes, a face as gentle as a girl's, and a soft sleepy voice."
The origins of Pienaar's character and person in the Richard Hannay novels are that Pienaar is a 'white hunter' and sometime "ne'er-do-well" whom Hannay met during his time spent in South Africa as a mining engineer, some time before World War I. They formed a very strong bond of comradely friendship forged in moments of extreme danger.
Pienaar appears in the following "Richard Hannay" novels: Greenmantle , The Island of Sheep , and Mr Standfast .
In Greenmantle, Pienaar aids Hannay as an agent who deceives the German authorities in 1915 about the intentions and inclinations of Afrikaners towards the British Empire, and about how important the Middle East is to British interests. Pienaar plays, while unauthorised and gallivanting in Imperial Germany, a slightly deranged but anti-British Boer, who only wants to do harm to the British Empire out of revenge for wrongs done to his people during the Anglo-Boer war (the Second South African War). He is re-united with Hannay by chance at a harbour on the Danube, on the way to Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman empire.
Near the end of the novel Mr Standfast, Pienaar - who joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1916 and become something of an "ace" and a hero to the younger pilots although modest and self-effacing as a man, is killed in an aerial collision during an heroic battle with the German air ace "Lensch" (also portrayed by Buchan as a chivalrous and honourable enemy, for Pienaar met him while in brief captivity previous to this story, and Lensch saw to his well-being). Lensch, leading a flight of fighter/observers, is carrying back to the German lines the secret of the terrible vulnerability of the Allied lines at that point in early 1918. The event is witnessed by General Richard Hannay on the ground, in his trench lines, a short distance away.
Pienaar is buried in the last scene of Mr Standfast, in which Richard Hannay, in the presence of Mary Lamington and John S. Blenkiron, reads the valediction for "Mr Valiant-for-Truth" (from "Pilgrim's Progress") instead of that for Mr Standfast: as Hannay believes that Pienaar earned that greater salute for his bravery than what he would have otherwise warranted. Pienaar is awarded the VC posthumously, for his action.
The reference to "Mr Standfast", a character from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress , is because Pienaar is stated as often comparing himself to that fictional character. [1]
The plot of The Island of Sheep arises from an incident in South Africa involving Hannay and Pienaar. Pienaar inspires Hannay's character based disguises in The 39 Steps.
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John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.
The Thirty-Nine Steps is a 1915 adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, first published by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. It was serialized in All-Story Weekly issues of 5 and 12 June 1915, and in Blackwood's Magazine between July and September 1915, before being published in book form in October of that year. It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a knack for getting himself out of tricky situations.
Greenmantle is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character Richard Hannay. It was first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being Mr Standfast (1919); Hannay's first and best-known adventure, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), is set in the period immediately preceding the war.
Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and further made popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps, 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, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer War, and a British Army field marshal and CIGS.
Mr Standfast is the third of five Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan, first published in 1919 by Hodder & Stoughton, London.
David Robb is a Scottish actor.
The Three Hostages is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels by the Scottish author John Buchan, first published in July 1924 by Hodder & Stoughton, London.
The 39 Steps is a 1935 British spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. It is loosely based on the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It concerns a Canadian civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organisation of spies called "The 39 Steps" from stealing British military secrets. Mistakenly accused of the murder of a counter-espionage agent, Hannay goes on the run to Scotland and becomes tangled up with an attractive woman, Pamela, while hoping to stop the spy ring and clear his name.
The 39 Steps is a 1959 British thriller film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Kenneth More and Taina Elg. Produced by Betty Box, it is a remake of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film, loosely based on the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.
The Thirty Nine Steps [sic] is a British 1978 thriller film directed by Don Sharp, with screenplay by British playwright Michael Robson, based on the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It was the third film version of the 1915 novel.
Ludovic "Sandy" Gustavus Arbuthnot, later 16th Lord Clanroyden is a fictional character who appears in various books by John Buchan in the Richard Hannay series. These books include Greenmantle, The Three Hostages, The Courts of the Morning, and The Island of Sheep, but not the first in the series, The Thirty-Nine Steps. He also appears in The League of Heroes by Xavier Mauméjean. His particular expertise is in adopting disguises which completely take in Hannay, the "friend [he] knows best in the world".
The Island of Sheep is a 1936 novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, the last of his novels to focus on his characters Richard Hannay and Sandy Arbuthnot. It was published in the United States under the title The Man from the Norlands.
The Courts of the Morning is a 1929 adventure novel by John Buchan, featuring his character Sandy Arbuthnot. The prologue is narrated by Richard Hannay, so the novel is sometimes included in Buchan's Hannay series. The action is set in Olifa, a fictional country on the west coast of South America.
Hannay was a 1988 ITV television series, a prequel spin-off from the 1978 film version of John Buchan's 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps. The film and series starred Robert Powell as Richard Hannay in the post Second Boer War years.
John Scantlebury Blenkiron is a fictional character who appears in several books by John Buchan, including Greenmantle, Mr Standfast, The Courts of the Morning and Sick Heart River. Blenkiron comes from the United States, and has assisted Richard Hannay. When Hannay first meets Blenkiron, it is revealed that he suffers from dyspepsia and so often drinks boiled milk, eats dry toast and fish. Subsequently he has an operation where a part of his duodenum is replaced by rubber tubing and his digestion is restored.
Muirtown is an area in the west end of the city of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. It contains the Muirtown basin and Muirtown Primary School.
Sir Archibald Roylance was a fictional character created by John Buchan. He appeared in many Buchan novels, never as the protagonist. He was a good friend of Richard Hannay and Edward Leithen despite being younger than them.
The Half-Hearted is a 1900 novel of romance and adventure by the Scottish author John Buchan. It was Buchan's first novel in a modern setting and was written when he was 24 while working for an All-Souls fellowship and reading for the bar.
The Runagates Club is a 1928 collection of short stories by the Scottish author John Buchan. The collection consists of twelve tales presented as reminiscences of members of The Runagates Club, a London dining society. Several of the stories are recounted by recurrent characters in Buchan’s fiction, including Richard Hannay, Sandy Arbuthnot, John Palliser-Yeates, Charles Lamancha, and Edward Leithen.