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.

Biography

Born in Ealing, London, he was educated at the Dragon School, Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford. Shute served in World War I as a ground-based soldier. An aeronautical engineer as well as a pilot, he began his engineering career with De Havilland Aircraft Company, but being dissatisfied with the opportunities, took a position in 1924 with Vickers Ltd. where he was involved with the development of airships. Shute worked as Chief Calculator (stress engineer) on the R-100 Airship project, for the subsidiary Airship Guarantee Company. In 1929, he was promoted to Deputy Chief Engineer of the R100 project under Barnes Wallis.

Related Topics:
Ealing - London - Dragon School - Shrewsbury School - Balliol College, Oxford - World War I - Aeronautical engineer - De Havilland - Vickers Ltd. - Airship - Barnes Wallis

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The R100 was a prototype for passenger-carrying airships that would serve the needs of Britain's global empire. R100 was a modest success, but the fatal crash of its government-funded counterpart, R101, in 1930 ended Britain's interest in airships and the R100 was grounded and scrapped. He gives a detailed account of the episode in his 1954 autobiographical work, . Shute left Vickers shortly afterward, and in 1931 founded the aircraft construction company Airspeed Ltd.

Related Topics:
R100 - R101 - 1931 - Airspeed Ltd

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1931 he married Francis Mary Heaton. They had two daughters.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By the outbreak of World War II Shute was already a rising novelist. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a sub-lieutenant in the Miscellaneous Weapons Department, where he experimented with secret weapons, a job that appealed to the engineer in him. His celebrity as a writer caused the Ministry of Information to send him to the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, and later to Burma as a correspondent.

Related Topics:
World War II - Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve - Normandy landings - June 6 - 1944 - Burma

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After World War II, he went to live in Australia, decrying what he saw as a decline in his home country. Australia features in many of his later novels, including the well-known A Town Like Alice (1950). He had a brief career as a racing car driver in Australia between 1956 and 1958, driving a white XK140 Jaguar. Some of this experience found its way into his book On The Beach.

Related Topics:
World War II - Australia - A Town Like Alice - 1950 - Jaguar - On The Beach

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many of his books were filmed, including Pied Piper (1942), On the Beach and No Highway (filmed as "No Highway in the Sky" in 1951). A Town Like Alice was adapted for television in 1981, and shown in the United States on the Public Broadcasting System's Masterpiece Theater.

Related Topics:
Pied Piper - 1942 - On the Beach - Masterpiece Theater

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He died in Melbourne in 1960. He was a cousin of the Irish-American actress Geraldine Fitzgerald.

Related Topics:
Melbourne - 1960 - Geraldine Fitzgerald

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~