The UK library has recently acquired the CD of the book by Philip R Davey entitled "When Hollywood came to Melbourne - The story of the making of Stanley Kramer's film of 'On the Beach'"- UK library Number UK506.
After 12 years of founding, leading and master-minding the Nevil Shute Foundation, Dan Telfair has handed over the reins to John Anderson who has taken over as Vice President. We thank Dan for all the hard work he has done over such a long time in promoting Nevil Shute and the Foundation.
Laura Schneider has compiled the results of the feedback survey of the gathering "The Nevil Shute Legacy" in Australia in 2007
The addition of some material to the UK library (UK 503, 504 & 505). The first of these three is a biography of Barnes Wallis by his daughter, Mary Stopes-Roe
An analysis of the UK2009 post Conference Survey has been included in the UK 2009 report.
An article written by John Anderson after his visit to Cavendish Morton.
The report of the 6th Biennial Conference, held in York, United Kingdom, is now included. Photographs of the event will follow later.
A definition of the word "drummer" found in "So Disdained".
Gerald Pawle's Book "The Secret War" has been republished by Seaforth Publishing as "The Wheezers and Dodgers". It's a paperback priced at £9.99. ( ISBN 978-184832-026-0.)
A photograph of a letter by Nevil Shute's father to the Master of Balliol College Oxford
A more detailed listing of items held in the OZ library
A photograph of a small portion of one of the main spars of the R100.
A copy of a copy of an photo (and therefore regretably rather blurred) from the "West Yorkshire Passenger Executive" showing an Airspeed "Ferry" being moved out of the factory (the bus garage) at night.
An interesting article written by Gary Swinson about his visit to the Welsh border, where he discovered the house where Sir Thomas merton collaborated with Barnes Wallace in the development of, among other devices, the famous "bouncing bomb"
Three useful links to short film clips of R100 and R101 (courtesy John Anderson and Dick McIntyre):-
House of Stratus no longer publish any of Nevil Shute's books. Instead they will be published by Random House, www.randomhouse.co.uk. The first four (A Town Like Alice, On the Beach, Pied Piper and Requiem for a Wren) will be available at the beginning of September, with the remainder by "Publish on Demand" later.
The definition of the word "scunner", found in "Requiem for a Wren"
Some new and updated photographs (courtesy Michael Hannan) of South Hill, the house in Dublin where Nevil Shute's father lived when he was Secretary to the Post Office in Ireland, including a letter written by Nevil Shute after his visit there in 1946.
The definition of "heads" derived from the fact that in olden times, they were situated at the front of the ship. (See glossary for more detail).
The definition of "Froth-blower cuff links", worn by Stenning in Chapter 8 of "So Disdained", has been added, thanks to Chris Phillips. Interestingly, in John Betjeman's poem "The Varsity Students Rag" the first line of the second verse starts "I started a rag in Putney, at our Frothblowers Branch down there"
Further audio books on CD have been acquired for the UK library. These are "A Town Like Alice", "Trustee from the Toolroom" and "Breaking Wave/Requiem for a Wren"
At long last, the photographs of the OZ2007 gathering - "The Nevil Shute Legacy" - are now on the website. Go to Gatherings/oz2007.php to see them.
"House of Stratus" have been added to the list of resources for the purchase of Nevil Shute's novels
The narrative of the OZ 2007 Conference - "The Nevil Shute Legacy" -, written by the Conference Manager, Laura Schneider, is now available on the website.
The UK library has recently acquired four audio books on compact disc. They are "What Happened to the Corbetts/Ordeal", " Beyond the Black Stump", "Pastoral" and " On the Beach". They can be found in the UK library listing at stock numbers UK073 to UK076.
Two more book covers - "On the Beach " and "Pastoral", courtesy Charles D., of Dalton, Minnesota, USA
Barry Stobart Hook believes that the picture of "the very pretty woman" sitting on the right in the interior of the AS6 Envoy on page 3 of the 1931 - 1940 chapter of the PhotoTimeLine is his mother. A publicity shot of the same lady taken for Airspeed at the time can be seen linked to that page.
A very sharp-eyed correspondent, John Cooper, has pointed out that the picture on page 5 of the 1931-1940 chapter of the PhotoTimeLine was not HMS HOOD at all, but HMS NELSON. I've now changed the photo to the correct battleship, HMS HOOD.
A definition of "pitot" as found in "Stephen Morris"
Additional voting for your favourite books has put " Trustee from the Toolroom" in first place again.
An article by our chief researcher, John Anderson, on "Nevil Shute, Sailing and 'RUNAGATE'"
More books covers for "Stephen Morris", "Landfall", "No Highway", "Pastoral", "Pied Piper", "Requiem for a Wren" and "Round the Bend", all courtesy of Andy Burgess.
Another book cover for "An Old Captivity" has been found. (Bottom right of page)
More votes for your favourite books are coming in. "A Town Like Alice" has just pipped the post from "Trustee from the Toolroom"
One of our eagle-eyed readers (Martin Heyes) has pointed out two errors in the newsletter of March 2004, namely that Eric Hiscock was born in 1900 (not 1908), and that he was born in Oxford not Southampton.
Some new book covers for "On the Beach", "Trustee from the Toolroom" and "Ruined City", all supplied by Matthew Sproston.
Oren Wolfe, the previous webmaster, has told me that the 1958 version of "A Town Like Alice" will be broadcast in the United States on Turner Classic Movies at 6pm Eastern Time, 18 September 2008.
A recent photograph of the two airship sheds at Cardington, as well as a (not very good quality) photo of both airships in the sheds (in my own defence, the latter was taken in a pub - the Bell - near to the sheds and I had a brief moment to take the photo of the photo in its glass frame - Webmaster !)
A resumé of a talk given by Andy Burgess at the Dartmouth gathering in April 2008, on the coincidences between "Marazan" and " The Thirty Nine Steps" by John Buchan
A report by Tommy and Polly Thomas on their visit to Langwarrin is included.
The addition of a photograph in the Virtual Museum of a font in Langwarrin Church donated in 1962 by Nevil's wife Frances.
Two definitions of the word "priest" in the Glossary, as well as "bogey", "RNC" and "sidcot suit"
A copy of "Most Secret" is now available in the UK library
A little known part of the website enables readers to vote for their favourite books. Three readers have recently added their's. A menu item has been added.
More book covers have been included:- Stephen Morris [1], Lonely Road [2], Ruined City [3], An Old Captivity [4], Landfall [1], Pied Piper [1], Pastoral [2], Most Secret [2], Chequer Board [2], No highway [1], A Town like Alice [4], Round the Bend [1], In the Wet [2], Slide Rule [1], Requiem for a Wren [1] and What Happened to the Corbetts [4]. All thanks to Alan Shepherd.
Yet more book covers ("Rainbow and the Rose", "Trustee from the Toolroom", "Slide Rule" & "Chequer Board") have been added, this time courtesy of Richard Kidd
Two links at the bottom of the "Book Reviews" page, under the heading "Various Reviews" attributed to Richard La Ven and Eric Erisman, have been corrected.
In addition, links to reviews of related books have also been added
An interesting comment from Arno Martens about the origin of LBSC's real name.
A recently found photograph of R100 flying over Toronto as been added to the PhotoTimeLine
February 2008
Sixteen additional book covers have been added, courtesy of Dirk Lukasse of Holland
Gary Bartell has temporarily taken over the US library whilst Susan Batross is away.
Copies of two cuttings from "The Times" of 1930 have been added to the PhotoTimeLine for 1921-1930
January 2008
An appreciation of "The Rainbow and the Rose" by Penny Morton, who lives in Tasmania, has been added to the Miscellaneous page
The new book "Billy Vincent - Bush Pilot", by Guy Nicholson, is now in the UK library. Nevil Shute modelled Billy Monkhouse (the ground engineer in "Rainbow and the Rose") on Billy Vincent
Most of the pages on the entire website have been updated to the same style (as this one). If I've missed any out please let me (Webmaster) know by clicking here.
All the known book covers are now shown together here
You can view the scores to date and vote for your favourite books by going here
