Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute (London, January 17, 1899 – Melbourne, January 12, 1960) (full name Nevil Shute Norway) was one of the most popular novelists of the mid-20th century. His stories and characters have a genuine sweetness to them, which occasionally becomes cloying, but which helps explain why a half-century after his death, virtually all his books remain in print.

Belief in private enterprise

Nevil Shute's novels frequently present private enterprise as a source of moral good. In this respect, he is presenting an uncommon theme found, usually, only in American 1950's literature. Novels such as Ayn Rand's, 'Atlas Shrugged' or Cameron Hawley's 'Executive Suite' and 'Cash McCall' present the businessman as a value-creating hero who adds wealth to the human experience.

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For Example, A Town Like Alice contains a very characteristic passage. A young woman, who has been working as a secretary in a pleasant, but uninspiring, job, has just received a substantial legacy. She ponders on what she should do, now that she no longer actually needs to work. The following exchange flashes by almost as an aside:

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:I know of several charitable appeals who would have found a first-rate shortand-typist, unpaid, a perfect godsend, and I told her so. She was inclined to be critical about those. "Surely, if a thing is really worth while, it'll pay," she said. She evidently had quite a strong business instinct latent in her. "It wouldn't need to have an unpaid secretary."

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:"Charitable organizations like to keep the overheads down," I remarked.

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:"I shouldn't have thought organizations that haven't got enough margin to pay a secretary can possibly do very much good," she said.

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This belief also carries Ruined City (1938; U.S. title: Kindling), about a wealthy and respected banker who lifts a shipbuilding town out of the depression by bringing a ship-building concern back to life through money, bribery and questionable financial dealings. His reputation is destroyed, and he goes to jail for fraud, but the shipyard is back in business and the town is saved. When he has served his term, he returns to the town and finds a bronze plaque on the shipyard gate with his head and shoulders embossed on it and the words

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:HENRY WARREN

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:1934

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:HE GAVE US WORK

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