Buchan, William 1916–2008

(Baron of Elsfield, William James de l'Aigle Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

Born January 10, 1916; died June 29, 2008. Public relations representative, business executive, poet, novelist, short-story writer, biographer, and memoirist. Buchan was the son of popular novelist and well-known politician John Buchan (author of the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps and one-time governor-general of Canada), and, although he followed in his father's literary footsteps, it was his biography of his celebrated parent that captured the serious attention of his critics. The younger Buchan began his career modestly after World War II, working as a public relations officer, a magazine editor, and finally as the owner of his own public relations firm. All the while, he was writing, too: short stories, poetry, and, in 1955, his first novel, Kumari: A Love Story. Set in India in the 1930s, the novel was well received, so he followed it with two thrillers, Helen All Alone (1961) and The Blue Pavilion (1966). These were the subject of mixed reviews. The first was criticized for placing a female protagonist in the male-dominated genre of spy stories, while other reviewers made favorable note of the author's craftsmanship. The second, despite a racy premise about a British businessman lured into a pornographic enterprise in Paris, failed to energize its reviewers. It was Buchan's next book, John Buchan: A Memoir (1982), a loving biography of his father and a tribute to the elder Buchan's hard work, moral character, and other virtues, that finally attracted the respect of his critics. A few years later he published the story of his own life in The Rags of Time: A Fragment of Autobiography (1990). He continued to publish novels and nonfiction for several years thereafter. Buchan's own life was one of privilege. The son of a highly decorated public official and member of the peerage, he was educated at prestigious schools and raised in relative luxury. Buchan succeeded his brother as Lord Tweedsmuir, Baron of Elsfield, in 1996. Throughout his life, however, and in his writings, Buchan revealed himself as a man who worked for a living (retiring from the French oil company Elf-Aquitaine in 1981), loved his family, enjoyed his life, and regarded his famous father with utmost respect.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Buchan, William, The Rags of Time: A Fragment of Autobiography, Buchan & Enright (Southampton, England), 1990.

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), July 4, 2008, p. 56.