GCSE EnglishStudent Workbook

Set TextThe Thirty-nine

StepsSummary

London, May 1914. Europe is close to the First World War. Richard Hannay, a Scotsman raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) is living in London, and finds American Franklin Scudder at his door. Scudder is a photographer and free-lance spy and has information about a plot by the German spy ring, the Black Stone, to steal the British plans for war. Hannay later finds Scudder dead in his flat and decides he must carry on Scudder’s work. With both German spies and the police after, Hannay must solve the riddle of the thirty-nine steps alone.

Task 1 : In no more than 50 words describe what kind of book you think ‘The Thirty Nine Steps’ might be and some ideas as to what you think might happen in it.

Background and themes

John Buchan wrote his Hannay stories as entertainment or, as he called them, ‘shockers’. He described a ‘shocker’as an adventure where the events in the story are unlikely and the reader is only just able to believe that they really happened. His experience of life, however, had already taught him that the most unlikely stories are more believable than the real facts. In his Hannay novels, Buchan cleverly mixes the

familiar and the frightening or the unexpected. The ingredients of the Hannay novels are simple: the government is being threatened, Hannay’s life is in danger, but our hero saves the situation and we are all safe again. Some of Buchan’s later adventure stories become more like sermons he uses a story to illustrate an important moral point. Even in The Thirty-nine Steps, Buchan holds up Richard Hannay as an example of an ordinary man who puts his country’s interests before his own safety.

Although Hannay describes himself as ordinary, he is the typical English gentleman hero – well educated, rich, strong, fit and healthy, looking for fun and adventure. Spies have always been important in time of war, particularly in finding out advance information about the enemy’s plans. At the time of the First World War plans were made in great detail. It is interesting to note that by 1915 Britain had copies of the three main German codebooks which remained in use by Germany until 1917. Several film versions of The Thirty-nine Steps have been made, most notably in 1935 by Alfred Hitchcock.

Task 2: What do you think about Hannay? Brainstorm words to describe him and list them below.

Task 3: Imagine: A Spy on the Run. In groups and consider the following: This book takes place mostly in the countryside of Scotland. The hero of the story is escaping from his enemies. There are rivers, valleys, a few groups of trees, and quiet houses. Imagine you are trying to cross a big area of countryside like this. The police are following you. Where will you hide? Where will you sleep? When will you travel? How will you eat? Record your thoughts below. This could be as a list, a mind map, or a narrative description.

Task 4: Many countries regard espionage activities as treasonable offences. Consider a recent headline news item relating to espionage and research the events. As you research record the how, why, what, when and where for both your searching and the event you are researching. For example, where did you search, how did you find your evidence and how was it presented.

Research Findings Research Process

How

Where

What

When

Why

Task 5: In groups present your finding from your research. The method of presentation is up to the group, for example a poster that is then explained to the group or a digital presentation. However every member must contribute and this must be evident during the presentation. The presentation will be to the rest of the class and will take up no more than five minutes of class time. The presentation will be compiled into a brief written format (200 word) and supported by a commentary on the individuals contribution this should include references to how you researched the evidence and your contribution to the presentation (100 words). Both your presentation and your report may include supporting images or diagrams. Make notes of your initial ideas below.

Task 6: Research either the geographical or historical aspects of both the fictional context and the contemporary factual events to create a class display. Work in groups to decide on what information might be useful / interesting / available / relevant and then how this may be gathered and finally display to best effect; considering context, audience and purpose. Make notes of your initial ideas below.

Task 7: What are ‘The Thirty-nine Steps ’? After reading the Introduction, in groups discuss with your peers what they imagine ‘The Thirty-nine Steps’ are. What is your best idea?

Task 8: The Thirty-nine Steps has been made into several films. Get into groups of those who have and those who haven’t seen one of

them. Each group must either retell or predict what the story is about using the words: Arrest, code, cottage, detonator, dynamite, lord, spy, politics, war, minister, telegram, tide, secret, murder, escape. Make notes below in bullet point form to help you plan.

Task 9: Tie in with films: What are they saying? Watch the first five scenes of The Thirty-nine Steps with the sound off. In groups choose one of the scenes and imagine what the characters say. Present your ideas to the class then watch the film again and check whose guess was closest to the original.

Chapters 1–2Task 10: Read the first few pages and then consider these questions in pairs.

Why is Hannay interested in Scudder’s story?

Is Hannay’s decision to hide Scudder good?

What can happen to both of them?

Task 11: Role play: Different clothes, different results. Working in groups of three get ready to dramatise this scene after reading about Hannay’s escape from the building: imagine that, instead of changing clothes with the milkman, Hannay goes to the police when he finds Scudder’s body. One of you is Hannay. The others are the police. Hannay tells his story. The police ask questions. They probably don’t believe him.What do you think would happen?

Task 12: Write: The Secret Notebook. Imagine you open Scudder’s secret book, write what the first page says.

Task 13: Working in pairs imagine you are either Hannay, Scudder, the milkman or Karolides. Take turns to describe what you are like, what you do and how you feel, can your partner guess who you are?

Task 14: Research: First World War. In groups look up information about what happened in the months before the First World War between England and Germany. Consider how we might add this information to our class display. Use the space below to plan.

Chapters 3–4Task 15: The mysterious spy. Imagine you are the young innkeeper in Chapter 3: Hannay has told you his secret and you have seen the spies following him. Write how you would start his story in your first mystery book.

Task 16: A letter asking for help. In pairs read the letter in Chapter 4. Imagine you are Sir Harry. Add more information that your uncle should know about the mysterious Mr Hannay.

Task 17: A good spy? In groups discuss Hannay as a spy and to make a list of his strong and weak points. Refer back to your earlier thoughts (Tasks 2, 3 &15). Consider how your thoughts have changed and why.

Task 18: A secret code. In pairs create a code with letters, numbers or pictures standing for letters: Write a message using your code and give a key word, giving the real letters and the code version. Give your message to another pair. Who can understand the message first?

Chapters 5–6Task 19: A different man? Consider how Hannay turns himself into Turnbull (see page 28). What does he do to his clothes, and his hands? What does he borrow from Turnbull? What advice does he remember from his old friend in Rhodesia?

Task 20: A new Hannay: in pairs choose a person for Hannay to turn into – not somebody from the story. Each pair tells the class about their new Hannay: With

another student, decide how Hannay changes his face, his clothes, his hair, his voice and the way he acts. Who does he look like? What’s his new job?

Task 21: Hannay’s next steps?Ask students to work in small groups and imagine what will happen to Hannay from now on: Will the spies follow him or think him dead? Where will he go? Who will he ask for help? Where will he hide?

Chapters 7–8Task 22: A true story or a lie? In Chapter 7, Hannay visits Sir Walter and tells him his story. How true is it? How does Hannay change his own story? How many times has Hannay changed his story when different people are listening to it? Discus in small groups and be prepares to debate with other groups.

Task 23: In groups retell part of the story changing the point of view: You are one – or some – of the members of the Black Stone. You’ve followed Hannay everywhere. Tell what happened in Chapters 7 and 8 from your own point of view. Plan your answer below.

Task 24: What did they do wrong? What mistakes did the Germans make? Why did Hannay discover them?

Task 25: A different ending? Change the end of the story. And write your own version. Decide what things in Chapters 9 and 10 need to change.

The Thirty-nine StepsSummaryLondon, May 1914. Europe is close to the First World War. Richard Hannay, a Scotsman raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) is living in London, and finds American Franklin Scudder at his door. Scudder is a photographer and free-lance spy and has information about a plot by the German spy ring, the Black Stone, to steal the British plans for war. Hannay later finds Scudder dead in his flat and decides he must carry on Scudder’s work. With both German spies and the police after, Hannay must solve the riddle of the thirty-nine steps alone.Chapter 1: Scudder is chased by German spies so he stops at Hannay’s flat and asks him for help, since he needs to a place to hide. Scudder tells Hannay that these spies are running after him because he knows about their plot to murder Primer Minister

Karolides, who is coming to London on June 15th. Hannay lets Scudder hide in his flat for several days and Scudder warns him about two dangerous German spies, Julia and an old man. Scudder asks Hannay to continue the fight if something happens to him. The following day, Hannay finds Scudder dead.Chapter 2: Hannay decides to continue Scudder’s work, but he needs to run away to Scotland before Scudder’s enemies, the German spies catch him. So he leaves his flat dressed up as a milkman. He then gets on a train to Galloway taking with him Scudder’s little book.Chapter 3: While Hannay travels by train to Galloway, he reads Scudder’s notes and discovers that he used a special code. The next day, on a train to Dumfries, he reads the newspaper and finds out that the London police have discovered Scudder’s body and that they were looking for him, so he decides to get off the train. Hannay runs towards the river and up the hills and sees a plane flying around the place. He realises that the German spies are after him. He walks until he reaches an inn. The young innkeeper is a writer, so Hannay decides to tell him his story but asks him not to do anything before June 15th. The German spies come to the inn looking for Hannay, but he manages to escape.Chapter 4: Hannay drives away in a stolen car. Now that he has learnt how to read Scudder’s code, he knows that the Germans are planning to kill Karolides to have an excuse to start the war. The words “thirty-nine steps” are everywhere in Scudder’s notebook but he does not understand what they mean. He realises that the local police and the German plane are chasing him so he jumps out of the car and lets it fall into a river. Hannay is lucky to be helped by a young man, Sir Harry, who happens to be the nephew of the Foreign Office Secretary, so Hannay tells him his story. Sir Harry decides to help Hannay by sending a letter to his uncle to schedule a meeting with him before June 15th.Chapter 5: Hannay is chased by the German plane, so he hides for the night. He meets a roadman, Turnbull, and takes his place after changing clothes with him. Hannay takes over Turnbull’s work. The three German spies who previously followed him to the young man’s inn see him and interrogate him but they do not notice who he is. Then Hannay runs into Jopley, a man he knew, and they both escape in Jopley’s car.Chapter 6: Hannay, still disguised as Turnbull, finds that several policemen are searching for him, so he decides to escape across the countryside. Hannay reaches an old man’s house and the man tells him to hide inside. Soon Hannay realises the old man is Scudder’s worst enemy. The old man knows who Hannay really is and he ignores Hannay’s lies and stories. Hannay is locked up in a room where he finds dynamite. He blows up the room and manages to run out of the house and hide on a bird-house roof.Chapter 7: Hannay walks to Turnbull’s cottage to look for Scudder’s notebook. He takes a train back to London but gets off to meet the Foreign Office Secretary, Sir Walter. Hannay tells Sir Walter about the German plot, Scudder’s secret code and his own story. Sir Walter tells Hannay that he knows who he really is and that the police are not looking for him anymore. Hannay and Sir Walter work on Scudder’s code and they are shocked to hear that Karolides has been killed.Chapter 8: Sir Walter tells Hannay that he suspects that there is a German spy in the Foreign Office or in the War Office. Both men go to Scotland Yard. The police tells Hannay he is a free man. But when Hannay leaves, he has a bad feeling and goes back to Sir Walter’s house. There he runs into the First Lord, a man he has never seen before and yet looks familiar. He soon realises that the man is part of the Black Stone disguised as Lord Alloa.Chapter 9: Sir Walter and the other top politicians and military men meeting in his house are shocked by the news about the Black Stone. They now have to change their plans since the Black Stone know everything about them. All the men realise that they

have to prevent the German spies from leaving England by ship. Suddenly, Hannay remembers Scudder’s notes about the tides and the ‘thirty-nine steps’. The men discover that Scudder’s code refers to a place in Kent and they all agree that the search operation should be in Hannay’s handsChapter 10: Once in Kent, Hannay and his men go to the place known as the Ruff and find the house they were looking for, Trafalgar Lodge. Hannay sees three men in the house who look like British men but, he suspects, are in fact the three German spies. Hannay enters the house ready to arrest the men but they pretend not to be the spies. The three men try to escape but Hannay finally manages to catch them and send them to jail.

Background and themesJohn Buchan wrote his Hannay stories as entertainment or, as he called them, ‘shockers’. He described a ‘shocker’ as an adventure where the events in the story are unlikely and the reader is only just able to believe that they really happened. His experience of life, however, had already taught him that the most unlikely stories are more believable than the real facts. In his Hannay novels, Buchan cleverly mixes the familiar and the frightening or the unexpected. The ingredients of the Hannay novels are simple: the government is being threatened, Hannay’s life is in danger, but our hero saves the situation and we are all safe again. Some of Buchan’s later adventure stories become more like sermons he uses a story to illustrate an important moral point. Even in The Thirty-nine Steps, Buchan holds up Richard Hannay as an example of an ordinary man who puts his country’s interests before his own safety.

Although Hannay describes himself as ordinary, he is the typical English gentleman hero – well educated, rich, strong, fit and healthy, looking for fun and adventure. Spies have always been important in time of war, particularly in finding out advance information about the enemy’s plans. At the time of the First World War plans were made in great detail. It is interesting to note that by 1915 Britain had copies of the three main German codebooks which remained in use by Germany until 1917. Three film versions of The Thirty-nine Steps have been made, most notably in 1935 by Alfred Hitchcock.

Unit 1 Understanding Prose: The Thirty Nine Steps – End of Term Assessment

1 Answer all parts of the question.

(a)From the extract, what do you discover about the character of Hannay? Use evidence from the extract to support your answer. (8)

(b)Comment on how the language in the extract is used to create an impression of Scudder. Use examples of the writer’s language from the extract. (10)

(c) Explore the significance of trust in this extract. Use evidence from the extract to support your answer. (10)

(d)Explore the significance of trust in the journey of Hannay evident in one other part ofthe novel. Use examples of the writer’s language to support your answer. (12)

(Spelling, punctuation and grammar will be assessed in part (d).Total for spelling, punctuation and grammar = 3 marks)(Total for Question 1 = 43 marks)

2 There are several questions, you need to choose one to answer. Spelling, punctuation and grammar will be assessed in your answer.

EITHERExplore the importance of events at the flat to the novel. You must consider the context of the novel. Use evidence to support your answer. (40)

OrHow is the theme of justice or doing the right thing presented throughout the novel? You must consider the context of the novel. Use evidence to support your answer. (40)

OrExplain why Hannay decides to carry on with Scudders work, what are his motivations? You must consider the context of the novel. Use evidence to support your answer. (40)

OrExplore how Hannay’s experiences on his journey affect him. You must consider the context of the text. Use evidence to support your answer. (40)

(Total for spelling, punctuation and grammar = 6 marks)(Total for Question 17 = 46 marks)