Although John Buchan was raised to the peerage (as Lord Tweedsmuir) in 1935, it was by his name as a commoner that this “unrivalled teller of tales” continued to be most widely known. His death in February 1940 evoked a wave of sadness in Britain and in many parts of the empire. But did he, posthumously, lose some of this popularity after 1945? Late last year, a senior history academic was quoted in the Melbourne Age as saying that, in the period following the war, Buchan was somewhat out of favour because of the celebrated writer’s “fondness” for Hitler and…