Where are the 39 steps – the ones that John Buchan mentions?
They are situated at North Foreland, not far from Broadstairs on the Isle of Thanet, they are a set of tunnelled stairways leading down to the beach from a private estate. The author was staying in the town recovering from illness in a villa, St Cuby, owned by a friend of the family, at the top of the stairs. At this time, 1914, he could have been inspired to write a spy story by the fact that a German spy had been captured on the clifftops nearby, signalling to an unknown vessel. The stairs actually consist of two shafts and three tunnelled sections down to beach level, completely surrounded by bushes which, as in the novel, obscure the passages from view from the road. Although there are now 108 steps, at the time of John Buchan’s visit there were 78 oak steps which was reduced to 39 as a more suitable title. They were replaced by concrete in the 1940’s, book-ends being made of some of the wood and presented to the owner of St Cuby, the author’s family and Alfred Hitchcock, who produ
