Huntingtower

Dickson McCunn has sold the Glasgow grocery business that organized most of his adult life. Comfortable, healthy, and newly free, he nevertheless worries that retirement may turn him into a useless old man. A spring morning and the discovery of extra leisure awaken a contrary impulse: the world outside his settled routine suddenly appears inviting again.

That restlessness sends the practical shopkeeper beyond the familiar limits of home. In Huntingtower, what begins as a holiday develops into an adventure shaped by mistaken assumptions, political danger, and people whose romantic expectations are stronger than their judgment. McCunn's ordinary decency becomes more useful than any heroic pose as he tries to understand the roles others have assigned themselves.

John Buchan gives the story the pace of a thriller and keeps its retired protagonist at the center of the comedy. McCunn is neither a trained agent nor a youthful conqueror. He is a civic-minded man testing whether imagination can enrich practical experience without replacing common sense. The novel's Scottish landscapes and improbable encounters explore the appeal of romance, the risks of treating life like a story, and the possibility of finding purpose after a long career has ended.