No-Man's-Land (Cryptofiction Classics - Weird Tales of Strange Creatures)

Book excerpt: This early work by John Buchan was originally published in 1899 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'No-Man's-Land' is a short story about a student on a fishing and walking trip who stumbles upon a lost tribe of picts. John Buchan, first Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield, was born in Perth, Scotland in 1875. Over the course of his life, Buchan would eventually publish some one hundred books, forty or so of which were novels, mostly wartime thrillers. In the latter part of his life he worked in politics, serving as Conservative MP for the Scottish universities and Lord High Commissioner of the Church of Scotland (1933-34). The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be giant spiders, werewolves, lake monsters, or dinosaurs, the Cryptofiction Classics series offers a fantastic introduction to the world of weird creatures in fiction.