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. They issue a challenge to three of Roylances 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; and lastly the Claybodys vulgar bekilted 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...