Inspirational Authors: Nevil Shute

[@marymimouna]

I enjoyed your talk, your chair, your books on the table and in the library behind you, and your tea. I came to find you through looking for any KZbin videos on Nevil Shute who is also one of my own favorite authors! Thank you for making this. I have subscribed to your channel!

[@writerlywitterings]

Oh thank you - welcome aboard!

[@emmalfal]

I didn't discover Nevil Shute until two years ago and for two years, I haven't read any other authors. I think I'm on my 11th or 12th Shute at this point. Just can't get enough. It's funny because he writes simple books. There's nothing fancy in his novels, just straightforward stories about men living their lives in various ways and yet I don't know a single author who is so consistently engaging. I'd be hard pressed to name a favorite Shute novel. Trustee from the Tool Room? A Town Like Alice? Round the Bend? The Pied Piper? Doesn't matter. When you get hold of a new Nevil Shute, you just know it's going to be a good read. Nice video. Glad I stumbled upon it.

[@writerlywitterings]

Thanks for that, Mark - and I agree. Every so often I think, Ah, but he's a bit dated - and then I reread Trustee From The Toolroom or A Town Like Alice or Requiem For A Wren and realise I'm a fool. I don't know how he fell from popularity.

[@emmalfal]

​@@writerlywitterings It's amazing you don't hear more about him in book circles. I"m presently reading Beyond the Black Stump. I think there are one or two after that I haven't ready yet, but beyond that, I'll be repeat reading. It's just astounding to me that I went so many years without reading ANYTHING by this author. A complete gem of a writer. He perfected simplicity somehow.

[@Sacha1967]

My father, who was a bricklayer but one of the most well read and intelligent people ever to have lived would tell me about Neville Shute, Alister McLain, Frederick Forsyth, John Lecarre and many other great authors, when I was a young boy, while he laid bricks, and I would stand and listen for hours. He passed away some years ago know but I have inherited (in my own small way) a great love of such authors. Still a few I’ve yet to read. “On The Beach” lives by my bedside. So, thank you Dad, thank you so much. 🙂

[@writerlywitterings]

Sounds like your dad and mine would have got on well. He was a superb writer. I have to return to Town Like Alice and Requiem for a Wren. Such superb stories.

[@mcd3379]

"On the Beach" is brilliant - I also first read it when I was a teenager and then afterwards a number of times. It hasn't aged at all, and will go on being a a classic. Although some may see it as a "depressing" book given it's setting of a group of characters facing the end of the world - it is in fact quite uplifting, as it shows the human spirit at it's best in terms of how humanity faces the abyss. From a doomed love affair to the last car race ever to a family just trying to live a normal life when normality just isn't possible anymore. A great, great novel.

[@writerlywitterings]

I quite agree - and many thanks for the comment!

[@mwmaish]

Wonderful writer - could tell stories in such an engaging way. (My father's favorite, too!) He had such a heart-warming way of writing the underdog-comes- into- his- own plot line. There's so much more than On The Beach, as fine a book as this is. Try Trustee of the Toolroom, if you have not already. Great "little guy" adventure!

[@writerlywitterings]

Yes, one of my favourites of his - although Requiem for a Wren and A Town Like Alice are close too!

[@getghost1534]

I am a 38 yr old american and Round the Bend has been my favorite book since I was 14 years old.

[@writerlywitterings]

Many thanks. You should try "Trustee from the Toolroom" too. It's a great story.

[@arnaldobuchman6392]

It stayed in my mind also.I read it in Brasil.We had a small library at Rio de Janeiro,inside a wooden cabinet improvised as a library.Most of the books were bought by my late father(QEPD),who bought them at "sebos"(2nd. hand bookshops).But if I am not mistaken,this novel by Nevil Shute,which was translated very apropriately to portuguese as "A Hora Final",belonged to my 1st. cousin,Ariel Weiner(a brilliant lawyer,by the way),already deceased by suicide,who gave it to my elder brother Julio,who is still living in Rio. I must add that it is a very sad book,but realistic and almost prophetic,considering the times we are living.I believe they made a movie or a serial on Tv about the book.

[@writerlywitterings]

I agree, Arnaldo. It was a very good book, but not very cheerful!

[@gaius68]

Great video & thanks for sharing. I was also introduced to Nevil Shute by my father & always think of him when I read one of the books.

[@writerlywitterings]

Thanks for sharing that. I was too. My father had very few authors whom he collected, but Shute was one, and I read my first books from his shelves. Later, he found a collection of leather-bound versions in a second hand bookshop and bought them all for me. And that reminds me, I must reread Trustee From The Toolroom ... and A Town Like Alice, and others too!

[@chrisw6704]

Thank you for this. I have read all of the works of Neville Shute including Slide Rule which was his autobiography. He certainly was a gifted storyteller and many of his works are hard to put down as he leads you through very human stories. By modern standards his works can be criticised on the grounds of racism, sexism and being very middle class in perspective. Having said that they often highlight the good in people, taking an ordinary human and putting them in an extraordinary situation and seeing them adapt (particularly the Pied Piper, A Town Like Alice, Trustee from the Toolroom and my favourite The Chequerboard). Whilst On the Beach is a good story and looks at the effect of a nuclear war in the northern hemisphere carrying particles into the southern hemisphere the really prophetic of his novels is What Happened to the Corbetts which was published in 1938 and gave a very realistic view of life that was to come to Britain a couple of years later in the Blitz. Shute had two great interests flying and also sailing. He had run a air business in the 1930's which I'm not sure was particularly successful. His love of sailing comes through in Trustee and Requiem for a Wren (one of his best). He left Britain to settle in Australia where he died (I think of a heart attack) he had become disillusioned with post war Britain because of high taxation and the evolution of the welfare state

[@writerlywitterings]

Thanks for that, Adam. Yes, to all your comments. Trouble is, of course, almost any writer before 1960 can be accused of casual racism, sexism and most other isms! I agree with your choice of his titles - other than Chequerboard, which I haven't read (yet)!

[@richardphillips6392]

Great video. I've never read anything like On The Beach. So evenly written if I remember correctly, making the whole thing incredibly poignant and surreal - which is how the end of the world would feel like, I imagine.

[@writerlywitterings]

Yes - it actually made the concept of the destruction of the human race almost banal, didn't it? But so many deeply affecting stories within it. A really superb story from a master storyteller. Thanks so much for the comment, Richard. Really appreciate it!

[@emmalfal]

@@writerlywitterings That's a good way to put it. In fact, the human race being banal may have been the ultimate point of the novel.

[@lisamcgeeney8972]

I love Nevil Shute. I 'found' him through the 1980s mini series 'The Far Country' and then discovered several of his books in a job lot I bought at an auction in Birr (Ireland) around the same time which included The Pied Piper, Requiem for a Wren and No Highway. I loved them all then read On the Beach A Town like Alice and The Far Country. I would rank him the best writer of contemporary fiction of his era. Each story has stayed with me and I get flashes of imagery from them randomly, even years after reading them.

[@writerlywitterings]

Glad to hear it! Just thinking I need to go back and reread Trustee from the Toolroom and Requiem for a Wren. Fabulous author.

[@davidbaker8483]

"Trustee"is one of my favourite books. I suppose I identify with the introverted modelmaking hero.

[@writerlywitterings]

Introverted and model making I can associate with ... but "hero" is a stretch for me!

[@ukulelalienation]

I read On The Beach when I was ten or eleven. I had found it in the school library. I went straight from W,E, Johns' Biggles Hunts Big Game, into the abyss that is On The Beach. That was circa 1980. Like you I read it again when I was older, in my early 30's and I'm about to read it a third time now I'm close to 50....in fact that is how I found your video. It is a book like no other. I found it and Nevile Shute utterly inspiring. I can't believe it was 40 years ago that I first read it....not only did the storytelling stay with me but also the physicality of the book, the cover, the way it felt to hold....it really made an impact on my young mind. Thank you for your video.

[@writerlywitterings]

Hi, Benjamin, and many thanks for that. It's always really difficult to think of the different subjects for my videos, and so reassuring when I choose one that seems to resonate and appeal to people. Clearly, this one did! Sounds like you are ten years younger than me, and picked up your copy at the same sort of age as I did. I can thoroughly recommend some of his other books, though - Trustee from the Toolroom is one that never got the recognition it deserved, but I think that it is one of those books that stays with you - for totally different reasons, admittedly. Thanks again, and happy reading!

[@tontowilliams]

Nevil Shute is one of my favourites too. You absolutely hit the nail on the head about On The Beach, and probably picked all of the books I would have recommended but I'd also add Pastoral. I haven't read his autobiography, but will check it out.

[@writerlywitterings]

Hopefully you'll enjoy Sliderule (his autobiography). It is a fascinating read, especially the sections talking about his early life, how he managed to get into the aerospace industries, and what happened over the R100/101 competition. So glad you agree about On The Beach. It's one of those books that everyone should read. Rather horrible, but utterly gripping.

[@colbeausabre8842]

Nevil Shute Norway served as a RNVR officer in the Royal Navy's Department of Miscellaneous Weapons Development during World War 2 and took a leading role in the development of the Great Panjandrum among other devices

[@writerlywitterings]

Before that he worked with Barnes Wallis on the design of the tailplane of a bomber - Halifax, I think, but I can't be sure.

[@NUHistorian]

Thanks for bringing some attention to Nevil Shute. I'm quite fond of his novels; A Town Like Alice is my favorite. Naturally, maybe, since my field is WWII history.

[@writerlywitterings]

Ah, but since you're keen on WWII, have you read Requiem for a Wren? Really gripping and just a lovely story!

[@NUHistorian]

@@writerlywitterings No, I haven't read Requiem for a Wren, but it will go on my list!

[@emmalfal]

@@NUHistorian I was aghast because I haven't yet read Requiem for a Wren. Turns out I have, only it's working title was The Breaking Wave. Wonder why the title change.

[@drnomad16]

Thanks for reminding me of Nevil Shute. Back in the sixties I used to see his name on the library shelves but I don’t recall reading any of his work. This is a good time to add his name to my list of authors to read. Now, about the tea, what kind do you like to drink and what is your favorite brewing method?

[@writerlywitterings]

This sounds like a challenge to make a video about teas! I can accept that challenge (once I have a new video camera). I do hope you try some Shute. His characterisation and storytelling is so good, everyone deserves to read a book or two of his. Many thanks for the comment, Nomad! Happy reading!

[@jennifertwine4635]

I read what happened to the corbetts at 14. Then read more of his novels A town like Alice tv version came on then. And that became my favourite. His novel s are compelling

[@writerlywitterings]

If you like A Town Like Alice, I hope you've tried Requiem for a Wren. Also, Trustee from the Toolroom is superb.

[@endeavour1976]

Thank You very much, míster Jecks.

[@writerlywitterings]

My pleasure, and thankyou for the comment, Miguel!

[@HarryDuBois616]

I just finished On The Beach and I found it deeply troubling but very well written. It's the first thing I've read by Shute but I will definitely check out more.

[@writerlywitterings]

I totally agree - the first of the truly dystopian stories, looking into the horror of the last days. Shute was a superb writer, a brilliant engineer who had a real insight into what makes humans tick. The idea of sitting and waiting for the nuclear winds to reach you is just ... well, horrible. And he managed to get the horror over.

[@herenow6953]

I'm late to the party! I absolutely love all of Nevil's books - I believe I have the full collection in various guises. On the Beach is indeed a great book but I love everthing he ever wrote! How to choose! Well of course I can't - because everything he wrote was so good. I spent a lot of time in Australia and get those - he was an amazing person and I'm sad I never got to meet him -

[@writerlywitterings]

Thanks for sharing. He's one of the writers I'd have liked to have met, too. A brilliant writer - and engineer!

[@historybuff66]

Thank you for a most edifying discussion on Nevil Shute, a superb writer who doesn’t deserve fading into literary obscurity...so helping to keep his flame alive on your part is a wonderful thing. I’m very fond of “No Highway”, which showcases Shute’s knowledge of aeronautical engineering, and have just now (finally) downloaded “On The Beach” onto my Kindle reader. Technically at one point I was living in the same city as Shute (Melbourne) when I was a wee lad in the early 1960s. A remarkable man whom I dearly wished I could have met. By the way, so glad that’s tea your drinking...and not coffee. Please do an author expose on Desmond Bagley if you are at all familiar with his novels. Another sadly neglected writer every bit as thrilling and chilling as Alistair Maclean...only with more consistency in quality of output. One his manuscripts from the early 70s was recently discovered and published as “Domino Island”. His other 16 novels are all stellar entries, and one of them “The Freedom Trap” became a Paul Newman film, released as “The McIntosh Man”. Cheers!

[@writerlywitterings]

Thanks for that, Michael, Oddly enough I have tried recently to read an Alistair Maclean - and couldn't. It was so hard going compared with Bagley. That's a really interesting idea. I only really discovered Bagley when my mother in law started clearing out her bookshelves about ten years ago, and I was hooked. Much better written than Maclean. I have to admit, my wife tried both recently and almost threw the Maclean across the room because of the sexism, racism and silliness. Bagley she read to the end! I'll have a look and think about him. Many thanks!

[@historybuff66]

writerlywitterings If you are open to some title suggestions, I highly recommend “Flyaway”, “The Tightrope Men”, “Running Blind” and “Landslide”. Desmond was a remarkable individual who reveled in computers, mathematics and the sciences, especially geology. As a geographer and soil scientist myself, I’m always impressed by his descriptions of far off, exotic locales that give the reader the feeling of being there first hand. And yes, agreed, his books have aged on the whole, much better than Maclean’s titles.

[@writerlywitterings]

@@historybuff66 Oh, infinitely better than AM's books! Thanks for that. I did get the feel that he was more of a Nevil Shute type of writer, one who really understood the landscape and could describe them perfectly to a reader who had never been there. Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to see what I can do. Cheers!

[@davidatherton7315]

Thanks for this video. I have most of his books and the ones I do not have got pilfered. On the beach is one of two or three I do not revisit. Most of the books though, are old friends and I read them over and over. Slow action is my description. One word of caution to possible readers, titles are not necessarily the same in the US as in England. My favorites, kind of in order. An Old Captivity, In the Wet, No Highway, Ruined City, Trustee from the Toolroom (the last one he wrote), Lonely Road. Of course, that is only about half of them!

[@writerlywitterings]

Trustee was the last book he wrote? I'm surprised. And thanks for reminding me - I haven't read Ruined City yet, and need to re-read others. Not, I think, On The Beach - it's not a cheery book, although it is stunningly well written.

[@thomaseland3136]

In the wet, town like Alice, ruined city, chequer board, round the bend, requiem for a wren, trustee from toolroom, the far country, beyond the black stump, no highway, vinland the good...all 👍 great.

[@writerlywitterings]

Couldn't agree more!

[@grantwallace1882]

Just started "On The 🏖 Beach". Can't get the Chris Rea song out of my head.

[@writerlywitterings]

Not quite the right tone for a book like that, but I can understand why!

[@joenperkins2138]

Enjoyed, always interesting. Thanks.

[@writerlywitterings]

Many thanks! It's good to hear that I'm hitting the subjects people want to watch!

[@claireevans4567]

His earliest novels were also riveting: Marazan (1926); What Happened to the Corbetts (1938); Landfall (1940), and almost a “great novel”, (1936?) Ruined City

[@writerlywitterings]

Sadly I haven't read any of them (yet) but I will! I will!

[@IvanKinsmanSDP]

The only book I have read of his is On the Beach which is excellent. Strongly recommended. I have looked at A Town Like Alice and I think I will add it to my reading list (once I have finished Thomas Hardy's Collected Works): '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 of World War II in Malaya, and after liberation emigrates to Australia to be with him, where she attempts, by investing her substantial financial inheritance, to generate economic prosperity in a small outback community-to turn it into "a town like Alice" i.e. Alice Springs'.

[@writerlywitterings]

AH, you have to read Requiem For A Wren, too. One of those stories that really tugs at the heart strings.

[@alexeypopov314]

I've read one Shute's book, On The Beach. And watched both movies. And... You know, there were three books I felt real pain reading, three books I wanted to drop but couldn't - On The Beach, A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller and Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I will read again all three of them despite the pain they cause. Thank you!

[@writerlywitterings]

Yes, they aren't easy reads because of the content, but they should be read by everyone.

[@alexeypopov314]

@@writerlywitterings Completely agree! P.S.: Noticed how I butchered Willis's name and corrected the error. Very sorry!

[@pamelaboxall7015]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Neville Shute wrote brilliant books. My favourites are Requiem for a WREN and On The Beach. My Dad was also a big fan of the books, just like yours, and I probably first read them in the mid-1970s. Was there one called Chequerboard? That seems to ring a bell. Now off to ask my daughter if she's read On The Beach, because I feel she must have done.

[@writerlywitterings]

Thanks, Pamela! Hardly his most cheerful book, but definitely one that is worth reading. Thought-provoking as well as scary.

[@dankenny3238]

An excwellent tribute to Nevil Shute but with one slight error. In On The Beach, both movie and book, it was a US submarine which had been placed under the overall command of the R.A.N. There was a R.A.N liaison officer posted on it (he is the character who essentially provides the voice in the book- it is written from his perspective) when it made its run back to the US to see if the nuclear cloud had cleared, and to investigate some random radio signals.

[@writerlywitterings]

You're quite right, and a lot of the book was about the USN captain, but the vast majority of the story was based on the RAN liaison officer, his wife, and their friend who socialised with the USN captain, which I think was the aspect that stuck in my memory. So apologies for that, and you're quite right. I reread it only recently, and I have to admit, the story still affected me, even all these years on. And now, with Putin, I just hope it wasn't prescient.

[@sachakahn2052]

Most interesting. Thank you for sharing. I wrote the name down.

[@writerlywitterings]

Thanks, Sacha. I think you should be able to find copies of his books without much difficulty.

[@ecamp6360]

"On The Beach" -- his most successful novel, assigned in schools around the world, is an easy choice. In terms of Brexit and the monarchy, "In The Wet" would be good. "Requiem For a Wren" is one of the hardest to find. In NYPL it was only available at branch for visually-impaired in large-print edition. His social consciousness, besides anti-nuke, was also anti-racist as in "Chequerboard." So many great books. Some with mystical, quantum and occult content.

[@writerlywitterings]

Sorry to take so long to get back - pressure of work! Thanks for the comments - and I'm sorry that REQUIEM is hard to find. In the UK it was one of his most popular, along with A TOWN LIKE ALICE.

[@ecamp6360]

@@writerlywitterings Thanx.

[@ecamp6360]

Posted my last too early. Do they have different versions in U.S.? "On the Beach" is about an American sub stuck in Australia and the hedonistic Aussies living out their last days on Earth.

[@writerlywitterings]

Hi, and sorry for the slow response - pressure of work. Yes, it was about a US sub, apologies. I can only confess to having read it a while before the comments on the author!

[@ecamp6360]

@writerlywitterings I've been listening to the BBC plays made from some of his works. Couldn't finish "Requiem..." too difficult, too sad. The others are excellent. Did they make more than the few offered on KZbin?

[@writerlywitterings]

@@ecamp6360 I'm afraid I haven't any idea. I don't know those plays from the radio. I'll have to go and see if I can find them myself!

[@clockguy2]

My favorite one is Trustee from the tool Room... but then I'm a clock-maker.

[@writerlywitterings]

Ooh! I envy you! I've always been fascinated by watches and clocks, and would have loved to be involved in them. I have two fob watches - one of which is broken and which I'm desperate to get mended. It needs a new fusee chain, and I have no idea how to get it fixed. I'm thinking of making a video about both watches this week - I imagine you'd like that!

[@clockguy2]

@@writerlywitterings Fun Fact: many a pocket watch was robbed of it's fusee chain in WWII for the war effort. I'm told, they repurposed them in the production of aircraft altimeters. The originals were often made by girls as young as 8 years old.

[@writerlywitterings]

@@clockguy2 That is a very interesting fun fact! However, I think my little watch still has the fusee inside - but broken. I had a guy look at it some years ago. One day I hope to get it repaired. You don't know any 8 year old girls capable of making a ... no, thought not!

[@Thepourdeuxchanson]

I love it, absolutely love it. I don't know any other book that combines engineering, sailing, love story and gratitude. It really is a one off.

[@johnclarke2814]

On the beach is a horrible story (right up there with 1984 and Atlas Shrugged) but it is a good book. Hunger Games fits this genre also.

[@writerlywitterings]

Yes, it's amazing how many dystopian stories there are now, and how popular they seem to be with teens and young adults in particular.

[@jamesagee8963]

Doubtless NevilShe descriptiohen of

[@writerlywitterings]

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