John Macnab

Three successful but bored friends in their mid-forties decide to turn to poaching. They are Sir Edward Leithen, lawyer, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), and ex-Attorney General; John Palliser-Yeates, banker and sportsman; and Charles, Earl of Lamancha, former adventurer and present Conservative Cabinet Minister. Under the collective name of "John Macnab", they set up in the Highland home of Sir Archie Roylance, a disabled war hero who wishes to be a Conservative MP.<br/>They issue a challenge to three of Roylance's neighbours: first the Radens, who are an old-established family, about to die out; next, the Bandicotts: an American archaeologist and his son, who are renting a grand estate for the summer while excavating the tomb of Harald Blacktooth; and lastly the Claybodys, vulgar, be-kilted nouveaux riches. These neighbours are forewarned that "John Macnab" will poach a salmon or a stag from their land and return it to them undetected. The outcome is that the men's boredom is dispelled with the assistance of helpers (including a homeless waif, "Fish Benjie", and an athletic journalist, Crossby), and Archie Roylance marries Janet Raden, daughter of the grandee.