“these days when the wildest fictions are so much less improbable than the facts” wrote John Buchan the author of one of the most enduring and popular novels of the twentieth century. By the time of his death in 1940, The Thirty Nine Steps had sold more than a million copies and had been adapted and directed as a movie by Alfred Hitchcock. Purportedly written in a matter of days, in the style of a fast paced ‘shilling shocker’ or ‘dime novel’, the novel has been accredited as the birth of the spy novel genre. Full of mystery, impersonation and narrow escapes, this ‘man on the run thriller’ was published first as a series chapbooks and latterly in book form by Hodder Stoughton publishers in 1915.

It is a wild read, as our hero Scotsman Richard Hannay is pursued by the police who have mistakenly identified him as a murderer. The victim having revealed to him details of a plot to assassinate the premier of Greece. Hannay has to elude the pursuing police while at the same time foiling the assassination plot.

But to what does the title refer? Is there a staircase to a beach that has 39 steps, or is 39 a spy-ring as suggested by Hitchcock? Some of have alluded to other possibilities, that in some way Buchan was prescient for the start of the Second World War. What was true though was that the novel became a piece of propaganda, beefing the bravery of the troops in the trenches of the First World War. The novel ends with the line “I had done my best service before I put on khaki”.

We are launching a writing competition to celebrate The Thirty Nine Steps and invite you to write a micro-story in just 39 words or under that is inspired by the original novel. We are giving you just 39 days in which to complete the challenge. We have volunteer judges, Nick Sayers (recently Fiction publisher at Hodder) and Mary Loring, who will select 39 entries to the competition, that will be included in a special limited illustrated chapbook created and published by Alban Low. We are also asking submitters to propose locations that are publicly accessible (including staircases, of course), where we might geolocate an audio anthology of the 39 selected stories. Prizes include artwork, chapbooks and cash!

We are dedicating the competition to Geoff Nicholson, a former Hodder author, Buchan fan, Salon guest and writing competition judge, who sadly passed away earlier this year. His partner Caroline Gannon is generously offering a special prize for an entry that she will choose from the 39 stories selected.

How to enter the competition can be found here.

Good luck!