Greenmantle cover art

Greenmantle

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Greenmantle

By: John Buchan
Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 In Greenmantle, Richard Hannay, the South African mining engineer and war hero first introduced in Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps, travels across war-torn Europe in search of a German plot and an Islamic messiah.

He is joined by three others: John S. Blenkiron, an American who is determined to battle the Kaiser; Peter Pienaar, an old Boer Scout; and the colorful Sandy Arbuthnot, who is modeled on Lawrence of Arabia. Disguised, they travel through Germany to Constantinople and the Russian border to confront their enemies, the hideous Stumm and the evil beauty Hilda von Einem. Their success or failure could change the outcome of the First World War.

Spy guy: listen to more of Hannay's exploits in The Thirty-Nine Steps, which was the source for one of Alfred Hitchcock's classic films.(P)1996 Blackstone Audio Inc. Classics Espionage European Literary History & Criticism Spies & Politics Thriller & Suspense World Literature War

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Hannay: His 5 Adventures cover art
Prester John cover art
The Courts of the Morning cover art
The Phantom Rickshaw cover art
The 39 Steps and Other Richard Hannay Adventures cover art
Rorke's Drift cover art
Vindolanda cover art
Rogue Male cover art
The Red Cobra cover art
Detective cover art
The Latter Days at Colditz cover art
Semper Fi cover art
EMPEROR: The Gates of Rome, Book 1 (Unabridged) cover art
Cue for Treason cover art
The Lieutenants cover art
Quatrain cover art

Critic reviews

"A specialty audio, a classic, but definitely a 'thinking man's audio'. Bravo, Blackstone Audiobooks, which seems to find these gems!" ( KLIATT)
All stars
Most relevant  
I loved the narrative flow and intense plot and characters, as well as the history lesson

Voice

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the book that Buchan was warming up for when he wrote the 39 steps. Its essentially the same story but bigger, more action, more travel and more chums...Have you seen the Will Smith film Bad Boys? Well this is Bad Boys two.
What I found surprising though was the comforting wisdom in it, the casts attitude to life, whats important and their struggles was gently inspiring.
Its not the best book ever but its a good solid piece of quality classic British writing.

Buchan's Best

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Robert Whitfield excels in his reading of this John Buchan classic. I have to admit to a strong bias, I am a huge JB fan and this is a Wonderfull story, well read. I could easily start again.

Wonderfull

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A bit too long? A bit too far-fetched (dare one even suggest "contrived")?

After loving The 39 Steps, this story let me down somewhat. It's hard to put my finger on exactly why, but I just didn't empathise with the characters so much. Even Hannah.

Well read, if a slightly cool and standoffish delivery - but that wasn't the problem. That was the story itself. Anyway, on to Mr Standfast with high hopes!

I really wanted to love it, but...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Read this as a teenager many years ago,still a great adventure story. When hero’s were gentlemen.

Great journey down memory lane

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This a great adventure story it keeps guessing to the end and the character's are grat

Greenmantle

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Where does Greenmantle rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's a good book and I enjoyed it - I love the old-fashioned language of John Buchan's novels.

What other book might you compare Greenmantle to, and why?

The writing is dated, and it compares well with any of the other adventure / heroic stories of that era, but political correctness, in particular to 'foreigners' had not been invented at the time Greenmantle was written.

What does Robert Whitfield bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Robert Whitfield has the perfect well-spoken English accent for the book. And if some of his 'other' accents aren't quite accurate, it doesn't matter, it all works smoothly.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Great heroes and brave spies...

Any additional comments?

The language is old-fashioned and it would be possible to laugh at the book, but it's great escapism back to my childhood when my father used to read Buchan to us.

Derring-do and stiff-upper-lips

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
if you love old fashioned British Empire adventuring with fine chaps in the Great War, you'll love this. If not, you'll hate it!

Old school action

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Execellent narration, really captures Hannay's voice as well as the supporting characters. Aside from 39 Steps this is best of the Hannay series.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
My favourite of the Richard Hannay stories. Completely brilliant. I’ll be listening to this again for sure. The narrator is excellent.

Very well read!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews