Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and
aeronautical engineer
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name to protect his engineering career from inferences by his employers (Vickers) or from fellow engineers that he was "not a serious person" or from potentially adverse publicity in connection with his novels, which included ''
On the Beach'' and ''
A Town Like Alice
''A Town Like Alice'' (United States title: ''The Legacy'') is a romance novel by Nevil Shute, published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman, becomes romantically interested in a fellow prisoner ...
''.
Early life
Shute was born in Somerset Road,
Ealing
Ealing () is a district in west London (sub-region), west London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. It is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Pl ...
(which was then in
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...
), in the house described in his novel ''
Trustee from the Toolroom''. He was educated at the
Dragon School,
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Shrewsbury.
Founded in 1552 by Edward VI by royal charter, to replace the town's Saxon collegiate foundations which were disestablished in the sixteenth century, Shrewsb ...
and
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world.
With a governing body of a master and aro ...
; he graduated from Oxford in 1922 with a third-class degree in engineering science.
Shute was the son of Arthur Hamilton Norway, who became head of the Post Office in
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
before the First World War and was based at the
General Post Office, Dublin
The General Post Office (GPO; ) is the former headquarters of — the Irish Post Office. It remains its registered office and the principal post office of Dublin[Easter Rising
The Easter Rising (), also known as the Easter Rebellion, was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week in April 1916. The Rising was launched by Irish republicans against British rule in Ireland with the aim of establishing an ind ...]
, and his wife Mary Louisa Gadsden. Shute himself was later commended for his role as a stretcher-bearer during the rising.
His grandmother
Georgina Norway was a novelist.
Shute attended the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich
The Royal Military Academy (RMA) at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of Officer (armed forces), commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers o ...
, and trained as a gunner. He was unable to take up a commission in the
Royal Flying Corps
The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...
in the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, which he believed was because of his stammer. He served as a soldier in the
Suffolk Regiment
The Suffolk Regiment was an infantry regiment Line infantry, of the line in the British Army with a history dating back to 1685. It saw service for three centuries, participating in many wars and conflicts, including the World War I, First and ...
, enlisting in the ranks in August 1918. He guarded the
Isle of Grain
Isle of Grain (Old English ''Greon'', meaning gravel) is a village and the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula within the unitary authority, district of Medway in Kent, south-east England. Once an island and now forming part of the peninsul ...
in the Thames Estuary, and served in military funeral parties in Kent during the
1918 flu pandemic
The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, H1N1 subtype of the influenz ...
.
Career in aviation
An
aeronautical engineer
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
as well as a pilot, Shute began his engineering career with the
de Havilland Aircraft Company. He used his pen-name as an author to protect his engineering career from any potentially adverse publicity in connection with his novels.
Dissatisfied with the lack of opportunities for advancement, he took a position in 1924 with
Vickers Ltd., where he was involved with the development of
airship
An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...
s, working as Chief Calculator (
stress engineer) on the
R100 airship project for the Vickers subsidiary Airship Guarantee Company. In 1929, he was promoted to deputy
chief engineer
A chief engineer, commonly referred to as "Chief" or "ChEng", is the most senior licensed mariner (engine officer) of an engine department on a ship, typically a merchant ship, and holds overall leadership and the responsibility of that departmen ...
of the R100 project under
Barnes Wallis
Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979) was an English engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attack ...
. When Wallis left the project, Shute became the chief engineer.
The R100 was a prototype for passenger-carrying airships that would serve the needs of Britain's empire. The government-funded but privately developed R100 made a successful 1930 round trip to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. While in Canada it made trips from
Montreal
Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
to
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
, Toronto, and
Niagara Falls
Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...
. The fatal 1930 crash near
Beauvais
Beauvais ( , ; ) is a town and Communes of France, commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise Departments of France, département, in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, north of Paris.
The Communes of France, commune o ...
, France, of its government-developed counterpart
R101
R101 was one of a pair of British rigid airships completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme, a British government programme to develop civil airships capable of service on long-distance routes within the British Empire. It was d ...
ended British interest in
dirigibles. The R100 was immediately grounded and subsequently scrapped.
Shute gives a detailed account of the development of the two airships in his 1954
autobiographical
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...
work, ''
Slide Rule: Autobiography of an Engineer''. When he started, he wrote that he was shocked to find that before building the
R38 the civil servants concerned '"had made no attempt to calculate the aerodynamic forces acting on the ship"' but had just copied the size of girders in German airships. The calculations for just one transverse frame of the R100 could take two or three months, and the solution '"almost amounted to a religious experience." But later he wrote that '"the disaster was the product of the system rather than the men at Cardington"; the one thing that was proved is that "government officials are totally ineffective in engineering development" and any weapons (they develop) will be bad weapons. The R101 made one short test flight in perfect weather, and was given an airworthiness certificate for her flight to India to meet the minister’s deadline. Norway thought it probable that a new outer cover for the R101 was taped on with rubber adhesive which reacted with the dope. His account is very critical of the R101 design and management team, and strongly hints that senior team members were complicit in concealing flaws in the airship's design and construction. In ''The Tender Ship,''
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada.
From 1942 to 1946, the ...
engineer and
Virginia Tech
The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...
professor
Arthur Squires used Shute's account of the R100 and R101 as a primary illustration of his thesis that governments are usually incompetent managers of technology projects.
In 1931, with the cancellation of the R100 project, Shute teamed up with the talented de Havilland-trained designer
A. Hessell Tiltman to found the aircraft construction company
Airspeed Ltd
Airspeed Limited was established in 1931 to build aeroplanes in York, England, by A. H. Tiltman and Nevil Shute, Nevil Shute Norway (the aeronautical engineer and novelist, who used his forenames as his pen-name). The other directors were A. E ...
.
A site was available in a former
trolleybus
A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...
garage on Piccadilly,
York
York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
. Despite setbacks, including the usual problems of a new business, Airspeed Limited eventually gained recognition when its
Envoy
Envoy or Envoys may refer to:
Diplomacy
* Diplomacy, in general
* Envoy (title)
* Special envoy, a type of Diplomatic rank#Special envoy, diplomatic rank
Brands
*Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft
*Envoy (automobile), an au ...
aircraft was chosen for the
King's Flight
Air transport of the British royal family and government is provided, depending on the circumstances and availability, by a variety of military and civilian operators. This includes an Airbus Voyager of the Royal Air Force (RAF), No. 10 Squad ...
. With the approach of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, a military version of the Envoy was developed, to be called the
Airspeed Oxford
The Airspeed AS.10 Oxford is a twin-engine monoplane aircraft developed and manufactured by Airspeed Ltd, Airspeed. It saw widespread use for training Commonwealth of Nations, British Commonwealth aircrews in navigation, radio-operating, bombin ...
. The Oxford became the standard advanced multi-engined trainer for the
RAF and British Commonwealth, with over 8,500 being built.
For the innovation of developing a hydraulic retractable undercarriage for the
Airspeed Courier, and his work on R100, Shute was made a Fellow of the
Royal Aeronautical Society
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest Aeronautics, aeronautical society in the world. Memb ...
.
On 7 March 1931, Shute married Frances Mary Heaton, a 28-year-old medical practitioner. They had two daughters, (Heather) Felicity and Shirley.
Second World War
By the outbreak of the Second World War, Shute was a rising novelist. Even as war seemed imminent he was working on military projects with his former boss at Vickers,
Sir Dennistoun Burney. He was commissioned into the
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family or royalty
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Roya ...
(RNVR) as a sub-lieutenant, having joined as an "elderly yachtsman" and expected to be in charge of a drifter or minesweeper, but after two days he was asked about his career and technical experience. He reached the "dizzy rank" of lieutenant commander, knowing nothing about "Sunday Divisions" and secretly fearing when he went on a little ship that he would be the senior naval officer and "have to do something".
So he ended up in the
Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development
Directorate may refer to:
Contemporary
*Directorates of the Scottish Government
* Directorate-General, a type of specialised administrative body in the European Union
* Directorate-General for External Security, the French external intelligence a ...
. There he was a head of engineering, working on secret weapons such as
Panjandrum, a job that appealed to the engineer in him. He also developed the
Rocket Spear, an anti-submarine missile with a fluted cast iron head. After the first U-boat was sunk by it,
Charles Goodeve sent him a message concluding "I am particularly pleased as it fully substantiates the foresight you showed in pushing this in its early stages. My congratulations."
His celebrity as a writer caused the
Ministry of Information to send him to the
Normandy Landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
on 6 June 1944 and later to
Burma
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...
as a correspondent. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant commander in the RNVR.
Literary career
Shute's first novel, ''
Stephen Morris'', was written in 1923, but not published until 1961 (with its 1924 sequel, ''Pilotage'').
His first published novel was ''
Marazan'', which came out in 1926. After that he averaged one novel every two years until the 1950s, with the exception of a six-year hiatus while he was establishing his own aircraft construction company, Airspeed Ltd. Sales of his books grew slowly with each novel, but he became much better known after the publication of his third to last book, ''
On the Beach'', in 1957.
Shute's novels are written in a simple, highly readable style, with clearly delineated plot lines. Many of the stories are introduced by a narrator who is not a character in the story. The most common theme in Shute's novels is the
dignity of work, spanning all classes, whether a Spanish bar hostess in the Balkans (''
Ruined City
''Ruined City'' is a 1938 novel by Nevil Shute, published by Cassell in the UK. In the US, the book was published by William Morrow under the title ''Kindling''.
Plot summary
The story is set in the Depression years of the 1930s, when a rich ...
'') or a brilliant but unworldly
boffin (''
No Highway''). His novels are in three main clusters: early pre-war flying adventures; Second World War tales; and stories set in Australia.
Another recurrent theme is the bridging of social barriers such as class (''
Lonely Road'' and ''Landfall''), race (''
The Chequer Board''), or religion (''
Round the Bend''). The Australian novels are individual hymns to that country, with subtle disparagement of the mores of the United States (''
Beyond the Black Stump'') and overt antipathy towards the post-World War II socialist government of Shute's native Britain (''
The Far Country'' and ''
In the Wet'').
Aviation and engineering provide the backdrop for many of Shute's novels. He identified how engineering, science, and design could improve human life and more than once used the anonymous epigram, "It has been said an engineer is a man who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for a pound."
Several of Shute's novels explored the boundary between accepted science and rational belief, on the one hand, and
mystical
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight ...
or
paranormal
Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
possibilities, including
reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...
, on the other hand. Shute did this by including elements of fantasy and science fiction in novels that were considered mainstream. They included
Buddhist astrology and folk prophecy in ''The Chequer Board''; the effective use of a
planchette in ''No Highway;'' a
messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...
figure in ''Round the Bend''; reincarnation, science fiction, and Aboriginal psychic powers in ''In the Wet.''
Twenty-four of his novels and novellas have been published. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, including ''
Lonely Road'' in 1936; ''
Landfall: A Channel Story'' in 1949; ''
Pied Piper'' in 1942 and again in 1959, and also as ''Crossing to Freedom,'' a CBS
made-for-television
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...
movie, in 1990; ''
On the Beach'' in 1959 and again in 2000 as a two-part miniseries; and ''
No Highway'' in 1951. ''
A Town Like Alice
''A Town Like Alice'' (United States title: ''The Legacy'') is a romance novel by Nevil Shute, published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman, becomes romantically interested in a fellow prisoner ...
'' was adapted into a film in 1956, serialised for
Australian television
Television in Australia began experimentally as early as 1929 in Melbourne with radio stations 3DB and 3UZ, and 2UE in Sydney, using the ''Radiovision'' system by Gilbert Miles and Donald McDonald, and later from other locations, such as Brisb ...
in 1981, and also broadcast on
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...
in 1997 starring
Jason Connery
Jason Joseph Connery (born 11 January 1963) is a British actor and director. He is the son of Sean Connery and Diane Cilento. On screen, he is best known for appearing in the third series of the ITV (TV channel), ITV drama series ''Robin of She ...
,
Becky Hindley
Rebecca "Becky" Hindley (born 11 August 1965) is an English television, stage and radio actress based in Lancaster, England. She is best known for her eight-month stint in ''Coronation Street'' as Charlotte Hoyle in 2010; her performance as th ...
,
Bernard Hepton
Francis Bernard Heptonstall (19 October 1925 – 27 July 2018) better known by the stage name Bernard Hepton, was an English actor and theatre director. He is known for his stage work and television roles in teleplays and series. He also appear ...
and
Virginia McKenna. Shute's 1952 novel ''
The Far Country'' was filmed for television as six one-hour episodes in 1972, and as a two-part
miniseries
In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
in 1987.
Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was acquired by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Ho ...
reprinted all 23 of his books in 2009.
Shute's final work was published more than 40 years after his death. ''
The Seafarers'' was first drafted in 1946–47, rewritten, and then put aside. In 1948, Shute again rewrote it, changing the title to ''Blind Understanding,'' but he left the manuscript incomplete. According to Dan Telfair in the foreword of the 2002 edition, some of the themes in ''The Seafarers'' and ''Blind Understanding'' were used in Shute's 1955 novel ''
Requiem for a Wren''.
Activities after the war
In 1948, Shute flew his own
Percival Proctor aeroplane to Australia and back, accompanied by the writer
James Riddell, who published a book, ''Flight of Fancy,'' based on the trip, in 1950.
On his return, concerned about what he saw as he "felt oppressed by British taxation", he decided that he and his family would move to Australia. In 1950, he settled with his wife and two daughters on farmland at
Langwarrin, south-east of
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
. Remembering his 1930 trip to Canada and his decision to immigrate to Australia, he wrote, in 1954, "For the first time in my life I saw how people live in an English-speaking country outside England." Although he intended to remain in Australia, he did not apply for
Australian citizenship, which was at that time a mere formality because he was a
British citizen
The primary law governing nationality in the United Kingdom is the British Nationality Act 1981, which came into force on 1 January 1983. Regulations apply to the British Islands, which include the UK itself (England, Wales, Scotland, and Nor ...
. In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the world's best-selling novelists. Between 1956 and 1958 in Australia, he took up car racing as a hobby, driving a white
Jaguar XK140
The Jaguar XK140 is a sports car manufactured by Jaguar Cars, Jaguar between 1954 and 1957 as the successor to the Jaguar XK120, XK120. Upgrades included more interior space, improved brakes, rack and pinion steering, increased suspension trav ...
. Some of this experience found its way into his book ''On the Beach''.
Shute died in Melbourne in 1960 after a stroke.
Honours

Norway Road and Nevil Shute Road at
Portsmouth Airport, Hampshire were both named after him. Shute Avenue in
Berwick, Victoria
Berwick () is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's central business district, located within the City of Casey local government area. Berwick recorded a population of 50,298 at the 2021 census.
It was named ...
was named after him, when the farm used for filming the 1959 film ''On the Beach'' was subdivided for housing.
The public library in
Alice Springs
Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...
,
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
is the Nevil Shute Memorial Library.
In the Readers' List of the
Modern Library 100 Best Novels
Modern Library's 100 Best Novels is a 1998 list of the best English-language novels published during the 20th century, as selected by the American publishing imprint, Modern Library, from among 400 novels published by Random House, which owns Mod ...
of the 20th century, ''A Town Like Alice'' came in at number 17, ''Trustee from the Toolroom'' at 27, and ''On the Beach'' at 56.
Works
* ''
Stephen Morris'' (1923, published 1961) (with ''Pilotage''). A young pilot takes on a daring and dangerous mission.
* ''
Pilotage
Piloting or pilotage is the process of navigating on water or in the air using fixed points of reference on the sea or on land, usually with reference to a nautical chart or aeronautical chart to obtain a fix of the position of the vessel or air ...
'' (1924, published 1961): a continuation of ''Stephen Morris''.
* ''
Marazan'' (1926). A convict rescues a downed pilot who helps him break up a drug ring.
* ''
So Disdained'' (1928). Published in the U.S. as ''The Mysterious Aviator'', and written soon after the General Strike of 1926, it reflected the debate in British society about socialism. The principled narrator initially chooses loyalty to a friend who betrayed Britain to Russia, over loyalty to his King and country. The book concludes with the narrator joining forces with
Italian Fascists
Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...
against a group of Russian spies.
* ''
Lonely Road'' (1932). This novel deals with conspiracies and counterconspiracies, and experiments with writing styles.
* ''
Ruined City
''Ruined City'' is a 1938 novel by Nevil Shute, published by Cassell in the UK. In the US, the book was published by William Morrow under the title ''Kindling''.
Plot summary
The story is set in the Depression years of the 1930s, when a rich ...
'' (1938): U.S. title: ''Kindling''. A rich banker revives a town economically with a shipbuilding company through questionable financial dealings. He goes to jail for fraud, but the shipyard revives. ''Ruined City'' was distilled from Shute's experiences in trying to set up his own aircraft company.
* ''
What Happened to the Corbetts'' (1938). U.S. title: ''Ordeal''. Foretells the German bombing of Southampton early in WWII.
* ''
An Old Captivity'' (1940). The story of a pilot hired to take aerial photographs of a site in Greenland, who suffers a drug-induced flashback to Viking times.
* ''
Landfall: A Channel Story'' (1940). A young RAF pilot and a British barmaid fall in love. His career suffers a setback when he is thought to have sunk a British submarine in error, but he is vindicated.
* ''
Pied Piper'' (1942). An old man rescues seven children (one of them the niece of a Gestapo officer) from France during the Nazi invasion.
* ''
Most Secret'' (1942, published 1945). Unconventional attacks on German forces during WWII, using a French fishing boat.
* ''
Pastoral
The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...
'' (1944). Crew relations and love at an airbase in rural surroundings in wartime England.
* ''
Vinland the Good'' (film script, 1946)
* ''
The Seafarers'' (1946–7, published 2002). The story of a dashing British naval Lieutenant and a Wren who meet right at the end of the Second World War. Their romance is blighted by differences in social background and economic constraints; in unhappiness each turns to odd jobs in boating circles.
* ''
The Chequer Board'' (1947). A dying man looks up three wartime comrades, one of whom sees Burma during Japanese occupation and in its independence period after the war. The novel contains a discussion of racism in the US and in the US Army stationed in Britain: British townsfolk prefer the company of black soldiers.
* ''
No Highway'' (1948). Set in Britain and Canada; an eccentric "boffin" at
RAE Farnborough predicts
metal fatigue
In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striation (fatigue), striati ...
in a new airliner, but is not believed. The
Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...
failed for just this reason several years later, in 1954.
* ''
A Town Like Alice
''A Town Like Alice'' (United States title: ''The Legacy'') is a romance novel by Nevil Shute, published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman, becomes romantically interested in a fellow prisoner ...
'' (1950): U.S. title: ''The Legacy''. The hero and heroine meet while both are prisoners of the Japanese in Malaya (now Malaysia). After the war they seek each other out and reunite in a small Australian town that would have no future if not for her plans to turn it into "a town like
Alice
Alice may refer to:
* Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname
Literature
* Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll
* ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
".
* ''
Round the Bend'' (1951). About a new religion developing around an aircraft mechanic. Shute considered this his best novel. It tackles racism, condemning the
White Australia policy.
* ''
The Far Country'' (1952). A young woman travels to Australia. About the economic plight of Britain after WWII, in light of high wool prices providing prosperity to sheep farmers in Australia in the same period. A doctor condemns the National Health Service, another overcomes prejudice to operate.
* ''
In the Wet'' (1953). An Anglican priest tells the story of an Australian aviator. This embraces a drug-induced flash forward to Britain in the 1980s. The novel criticises
British socialism and anti-monarchist democratic sentiment.
* ; (1964: Ballantine, New York)
* ''
Requiem for a Wren'' (1955). U.S. title: ''The Breaking Wave''. The story of a young British woman who, plagued with guilt after shooting down a plane carrying Polish refugees in World War II, moves to Australia to work anonymously for the parents of her (now deceased) Australian lover, whilst the lover's brother searches for her in Britain. The title echoes
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...
's ''
Requiem for a Nun''.
* ''
Beyond the Black Stump'' (1956). The ethical standards of an unconventional family living in a remote part of Australia are compared with those of a conventional family living in Oregon.
* ''
On the Beach'' (1957). Shute's best-known novel, set in Melbourne, whose population are awaiting death from the effects of an
atomic war. It was serialised in more than 40 newspapers, and adapted into a
1959 film starring
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor and one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, 12th-greatest male ...
and
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' att ...
. In 2007,
Gideon Haigh wrote an article in ''
The Monthly
''The Monthly'' is an Australian national magazine of politics, society and the arts, which is published eleven times per year on a monthly basis except the December/January issue. Founded in 2005, it is published by Melbourne property developer ...
'' arguing that ''On the Beach'' is Australia's most important novel: "Most novels of apocalypse posit at least a group of survivors and the semblance of hope. ''On The Beach'' allows nothing of the kind".
* ''
The Rainbow and the Rose'' (1958). One man's three love stories; narration shifts from the narrator to the main character and back.
* ''
Trustee from the Toolroom'' (1960). Shute's last novel, about the recovery of a lost legacy of diamonds from a wrecked yacht. Set in Britain, the Pacific Islands, and the American northwest.
References
* Smith, Julian ''Nevil Shute: A Biography'' The Paper Tiger, Creskill, NJ (2002) . (First published in 1976 as part of Twayne's English Author Series)
Croft, Julian (2000) 'Norway, Nevil Shute (1899–1960)' in ''Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 15'' Melbourne University Press, pp 498–499Accessed 14 June 2007
*Giffuni, Cathy (1988) ''Nevil Shute, a bibliography'' Adelaide: Auslib Press .
*Haigh, Gideon (2007) 'Shute's sands of time' in ''The Daily Telegraph'' http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,,21826948-5001031,00.html Accessed 14 June 2007
* Anderson, John, ''Parallel Motion – a biography of Nevil Shute Norway '' The Paper Tiger, (2011)
* Thorn, Richard, "Shute:The engineer who became a prince of storytellers" Matador, (2017) ()
External links
The Nevil Shute FoundationThe Nevil Shute Book Page– General Nevil Shute biographical information and extensive first edition collection tips
from ibooknet
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shute, Nevil
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