Reading order
Richard Hannay reading order
- The Thirty-nine Steps1915
- Greenmantle1916
- Mr Standfast1919
- The Three Hostages1924
- The Courts of the Morning1929
- The Island of Sheep1936
1
2
3
4
5
6- 7.47.4 / 1061 ratings
- Score
- 6 volumes
- Volumes
- 1915–1936
- Published
- about 30 h
- Reading time
- Completed
- Status
- Thriller
- Genre
Quick answer
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Publication order
6 volumes1915–1936Completed
- John Buchan’s adventure novels about Richard Hannay, a Scottish-born mining engineer back from South Africa, who in The Thirty-Nine Steps, from 1915, finds a murdered spy in his London flat and goes on the run across the Scottish moors, hunted by both the police and German agents.
- It is the model for the man-on-the-run thriller and was famously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- Greenmantle and the later books take Hannay through the First World War and beyond.
- Brisk but dated in attitudes.
- Read in order.
A plan for the whole series
6 volumes, 1,591 pages, about 30 hours. At 45 min a day that is about 6 weeks.
Stages
2 stages, with 1 short book from outside the series between them. You finish around December 11, 2026, 4 days later than in one go.
- Stage 118 habout 3 weeksby November 22, 2026
- Short breakThe Fire Next Time · James Baldwin · 120 pp. · score 8.8
- Stage 211 h15 daysby December 11, 2026
- The end of the series
We count 1.1 min per page, the pace of an average novel reader. Faster? Move the slider.
How this plan is calculated
The plan comes from the pages and ratings of each volume: we split the series into stages of about three weeks’ reading, size each break to the stage before it, and read the chance of finishing from how many readers rate the last volume compared with the first. How we work out the plan →
Every volume in order
Order checked by hand · Order and years: Wikidata (CC0). Spotted an error? Tell us. · Data updated October 29, 2026
Frequently asked questions
Which Richard Hannay book is the longest?
“The Courts of the Morning” is the longest at 405 pages; the shortest is “The Thirty-nine Steps” with 106 pages.
What should I read after Richard Hannay?
Other series by John Buchan: Dickson McCunn trilogy.
