Published in 1947, this is the story of a dying man looks up three wartime comrades. It concerns common themes often covered in Shute's novels such as the issue of racism.
I wonder how the group will judge the novel with 21st century eyes. Will we judge it in the same way as the Houston Post who described it as "in the gripping, breathless tradition of a master craftsman" or the Daily Express who thought that "A happy knack endows this story with a character who is slightly greater than life-size. It proves once again how the ordinary, the average, the season-ticket holder sitting next to you, can still, in the hands of an expert, furnish the very stuff of literature"
The Author
Nevil Shute was the pen name for an aeronautical engineer and author christened Nevil Shute Norway. Shute was born on 17 January 1899 in Ealing. He was educated at Shrewsbury followed by Oxford University. He worked at Vickers, the aircraft company in the 1920s. He subsequently emigrated in Australia and died there on 12 January 1960.
In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the world's best selling novelists, made famous by novels such as "A Town Like Alice" and "The Far Country". He published a total of 23 novels which were all reprinted by Vintage in 2009. His writing continues to have many fans including the comedian Jenny Colgan who sums him up as "Ooh, I think he’s wonderful....Proper handcrafted storytelling – you don’t get that any more"
More Information
The Nevil Shute Norway Foundation website - http://www.nevilshute.org/ - is a website dedicated to fans of Shute's work. Read a profile of Shute written by the novelist Philip Hensher and published in The Daily Telegraph at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6718768/Nevil-Shute-profile.html
