His fictional characters would follow his example in this as in other things.
In London Buchan studied law at the Middle Temple and continued the writing he had begun while at Oxford. He added foreign travel to his experience, spending two years (1901-1903) on the staff of Lord Alfred Milner, high commissioner for South Africa.After his return to London and a period of time as a barrister, Buchan accepted a position as literary adviser for the publishers Thomas Nelson and Sons in their Edinburgh headquarters. He moved back to London and worked in Nelson's office there soon after his marriage to Susan Grosvenor. The couple had four children.
Much of Buchan's writing before 1910 had been nonfiction: articles and books on Africa and on the tax law. His fiction had been written in emulation of Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, drawing on the rich romantic traditions of Scotland. His first contemporary novel, The Half-Hearted (1900), introduced the characteristic Buchan theme that self-sacrifice could overcome cowardice. In 1910 he published Prester John, a boys' adventure novel which opened new fictional fields for him. In the decade since he wrote The Half-Hearted, Buchan learned how to blend the exaggerated world of romance and adventure with a style of his own.
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