Letter: John Buchan revival

AS AN English person for whom John Buchan is a true hero figure, I'm amazed that you Scots don't appreciate him more. He was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Scotland to live, yet as Stuart Kelly suggests (your report, 1 February), he's been unfairly accused of snobbery and anti-Scottishness, whereas he was one of a group of Scots- born politicians who held important roles at that time in UK government but never forgot their origins.

And although Buchan has also been accused of sexism, the most cursory view of his heroines demonstrates totally the opposite: characters such as Mary Hannay and Barbara Clanroyden are feisty and capable, fighting alongside their men.

Equally in books like Huntingtower he is incredibly funny about working-class characters such as Glasgow grocer hero Dickson McCunn and the band of the "Gorbals Diehards" - kids who might nowadays be called "Neds" - but never disrespects them.

A Buchan renaissance in Scotland is long overdue.

DR MARY BROWN

Aberdeen Business School

Robert Gordon University