Shute: The Engineer Who Became A Prince Of Storytellers

Product Description

Nevil Shute was a writer whose books were frequently looked down on by literary critics & yet when he died in 1960 he was one of the best selling novelists of his day Today books such as A Town Like Alice & On the Beach continue to attract new generations of fans However there was more to Shute than his books a great deal more Richard Thorn explores Shute's personal & professional life drawing from extensive research carried out using archives & sources in the UK USA & Australia Nevil Shute Norway began his professional life as an aeronautical engineer working on the outskirts of London for the newly established de Havilland Aircraft Company He quickly went on to play a key role in Britain's ill-fated & final airship programme before co-founding an aircraft manufacturing company at the height of an economic depression All the while using the pseudonym Nevil Shute he spent his time writing for relaxation in the evenings After the Second World War he flew a single-engined aeroplane to Australia & back in search for new material for his novels Fascinated by the new world that he had seen the novelist sold up & moved his family to Australia buying a farm in a small town on the outskirts of Melbourne For the remainder of his life Australia was his home & the inspiration for many of his best-loved novels Shute tells the story of the life & times of an extraordinary man who made a significant contribution to twentieth century popular literature This book will appeal to fans of Shute's work those interested in his background & personal life or to readers interested in the early years of the aviation industry in Britain