Biblio Library

The Gap in the Curtain is a 1932 novel by John Buchan. It is borderline science fiction.

At a country house, five guests gather and are chosen by a brilliant scientist to take part in a shocking experiment which will let them glimpse one year into the future. However, when the experiment takes place, two of the guests see their own obituaries in The Times one year after. Will they be able to change their destinies?

Part of the action is clearly autobiographical, including featuring the agonies of a contemporary up and coming politician.

Sir Edward Leithen is a fictional character in several of John Buchan's novels: The Power-House (1916), John Macnab (1925), The Dancing Floor (1926), The Gap in the Curtain (1932) and Sick Heart River (1941), one year after Buchan's death. Leithen's name is borrowed from the Leithen Water, a tributary of the River Tweed, one of many references to the Scottish Borders in Buchan's novels.

John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir PC GCMG GCVO CH (26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.

After a brief legal career Buchan simultaneously began both his writing career and his political and diplomatic career, serving as a private secretary to the colonial administrator of various colonies in Southern Africa. He eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort in the First World War. Once he was back in civilian life Buchan was elected Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities, but he spent most of his time on his writing career, notably writing The Thirty-Nine Steps and other adventure fiction.