FROM Alison Jenner
alisonjenner@yahoo.com
Bookings are coming in for
the conference in Oxford. We have not yet reached the threshold we
need to do to be sure of breaking even, so do please sign up if you
are ready to do so. We're are also open to suggestions for new
presentations. Go to the website
http://www.oxford2015.info/
Once you have registered,
you can pay by credit or debit card or (better for us) by direct
funds transfer to the Foundation bank account. All the details are
on the registration web site.
Anyone who wants to stay
in single ensuite rooms on the Balliol campus, we have reserved
rooms in the historic college setting and there will be quite a
number of us there. You can email me directly or use the link from
the top right hand corner of the website http://www.oxford2015.info/.
Or use the form below.
Once we have your details
we will invoice you for your accommodation.
If you want to book a twin
ensuite room in the Jowett Walk accommodation, 10 minutes from
Balliol, please contact the college conference organiser Jacqueline
Fossey at
jacqueline.fossey@balliol.ox.ac.uk , with the dates you want to
stay.
If you have decided to
book at the Randolph or Hawkwell hotels there are conference rates
available to our group members; or if you wish to stay at another
hotel there are some suggestions on the conference website. Email me
if you have any problems.
We can look forward to a
really lovely setting for our meeting!
Nevil Shute Norway
Foundation
Oxford Conference 30th August - 4th September 2015
Booking form for Balliol College
Rooms
Name:
Address:
Postcode:
Email:
Telephone:
Dates room
required: ____ nights from ______ to _______
Accomodation:- Single ensuite room in Balliol
College at
£65 per room per night
NOTE:- Additional nights stay in the rooms
before or after the Conference must be arranged directly with Jacqui
Fossey at Balliol
NOTE Twin rooms in Balliol College's annexe in
Jowett Walk MUST be booked through the College Conference Officer,
Jacqueliene Fossey,
jacqueline.fossey@balliol.ox.ac.uk
The accommodation will be invoiced to you by the Foundation and must be paid for in advance of the Conference. Details of payment methods will be included on the invoice.
FROM Alison Jenner (item 2)
The England chapter of the Nevil Shute book
group met on Saturday 21 March at the Brooklands Museum, arranged by
Tom Wenham. As well as touring the amazing exhibitions the group
discussed 'Ruined City'. Members were also delighted to pore over
Angie Groves' memorabilia from not only her father's motorcycling
career, with some action shots taken for Motor Cycle News on the
circuit at Brooklands, but also letters, photos and manuscripts of
Alec's and Spiffy Menhinnick's wartime activities.
The next meeting will be on Saturday, 11 July, at a location to be fixed, probably in Southampton. Suggestions for a decent location - where we can get some lunch and base ourselves in the restaurant area - would be welcome. The book we intend to discuss is "What Happened to the Corbetts.
FROM Mike Berliner:
mberliner1@earthlink.net
Does anyone have information as to why there’s never been an official, properly produced DVD of the “A Town Like Alice” miniseries? A DVD can be purchased (and maybe legally) from various sources (not including Amazon), but the video quality is pretty bad—as though someone copied it at his home from the official VHS tape. Given that almost every movie and TV show from the beginning of time has shown up on DVD, it’s a mystery why “Alice” isn’t available. One can speculate that there are some legal/copyright issues involved, but I’d appreciate anything more definitive. This wonderful miniseries deserves better.
FROM Richard Kidd
richard@technicalsupport.com.au
Sad news from Australia:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-27/north-west-queensland-pub-destroyed-by-fire/6352318
FROM Kristin Hagelstein
greggandkristin@gmail.com
As you know, we had to cancel the Shutist
Gathering on February 28, due to weather concerns. I'd like to try again on Saturday, April 25, 2015, with the same
format:
The (re-scheduled) Hill Country Gathering of
the Nevil Shute Foundation will take place on April 25, 2015. It will be held at 12 noon at Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn, 905 West
Main, Fredericksburg, Texas. We will meet-and-greet at the restaurant and then individually
order lunch from their menu. After lunch, John Cooper will lead the
discussion on the Nevil Shute novel "A Town Like Alice".
After the discussion, those who wish to go on
the tour of the Museum of the Pacific War will go to the museum
lobby at the George Bush Gallery, corner of Austin and Lincoln,
where tickets can be purchased for $8 per person. Gregg Hagelstein
will give a brief overview of the museum. Also, you will receive a brochure that
John Cooper has prepared for the group for a self-guided tour of the
exhibits that have some connection with Nevil Shute's books. After that, you
can do a short tour of the exhibits pertaining to Shutists on your
own or go on a complete tour of the museum. Your tickets will be good for 48 hours and you can use them for
other parts of the museum complex.
Directions:
Friedhelm's -
All roads to Fredericksburg go directly to Main Street
or intersect with Main. Go west on Main
Street toward Mason, to the stoplight at the western edge of town. The road splits
here, left is Hwy 290, right is Hwy 87. Friedhelm's will be on the
left so you will turn left immediately after the light.
Museum -
Leaving Friedhelm's, go east on Main St to Lincoln
Street, turn left on Lincoln and go one block to Austin Street. The museum will be on the right and straight ahead there is free
parking at the Visitor Center.
Please let me know if you plan to attend at
this new date. Non-members of the Foundation are
welcome.
Thanks - I'm excited about the (re-scheduled) meeting and about getting to know each of you.
FROM Mike Blamey
mikeblamey@yahoo.co.uk
Page 78: Slide Rule: Nevil Shute
encastré
arched rib [these were called 'built-in' when I studied them and
their properties: the built-in 'end' of a beam (a cantilever is
such) is different to pinned joints that can rotate.
Perhaps it is the time of year, or the time of
our lives, but a re-reading of Slide Rule
over the past few days has re-ignited my long-lost interest in
mathematics. I write as someone who failed 'A' level mathematics the
first time: yet thereafter whilst at Uni had the good fortune to
have a personal tutor -the dear lady who this September will have
been mine for 50 years! In retrospect failing that
“A” level (UK version of College Leaving certificate, Arbitur,
Baccalaureate) was the best thing I ever did as it meant that I
could not take-up the place to read Physics at Bristol University
(which I would probably have failed!) , did a student apprenticeship
at an excellent firm, Woods of Colchester -re-took and passed
Mathematics and realised that it was not Physics but Engineering
I really wished to study and practice. I would
like to say that my first failure was because of poor teaching
('there are no bad students, only poor teachers?') but in essence,
it was my 'approach' which needed alteration.
I realised, under my new tutor's expert
guidance, as I believe our Master NSN did, that mathematics is not
some black-art: intelligible to only the gifted: but simply another
language, with its own symbols, signs, 'grammar', even spellin! [I
was never very good at the proper kind either].
When allied to the practical application of
Science, ie Engineering, mathematics becomes completely
understandable and absolutely useful. I read and greatly enjoyed
(and I believed understood!) NSN's description in Slide Rule of the
calculations necessary to design the strength/load carrying members
in R100; and recalled my initial difficulties at University with
what are termed iterative solutions to equations. Done by slide-rule
(we called these items at school and Uni 'sly-rules, because the
ones used by teachers and lecturers always seemed to give a lower
percentage mark than expected!) the effort must have been daunting.
As an aside: there is a lovely book, written by Sir Stanley Hooker,
who was on and off the Chief Engineer of Rolls Royce: and who did
the original calculations of the turbo-charger for the Merlin. He,
like NSN was first a mathematician, and you're 'Not much of an
Engineer' was what the CEO of Rolls Royce said to him at his
interview and which he used as the title of his autobiography.
Shute goes on:
“...produced a satisfaction almost amounting to a religious
experience....the very truth....those who built the great arches of
cathedrals in medieval times...must have known something of our
mathematics...have wondered if Freemasonry has anything to do with
this.”
I have never seen any reference in any writing
or commentary to Shute and the Craft. Does any Shutist know if he
was a Mason? The derivation of the word 'architect' is
'arch-technician' and creating stone structures/cathedrals to
stand-up straight and withstand 800 years of life would have
required a very special skill.
“The Great Architect of the Universe” is the description of the supreme being at the very heart of
Freemasonry. I am not one, but I did attend the Royal Masonic
School, because my father was. The entry qualification to the School
was simple. One's father had to have been a Mason and was dead!
Shutists might recall previous posts describing the link between my
father and NSN: and perhaps my father was the one who did point out
the influences of freemasonry in technology (or should that be the
other way round?) Shute, in 'Round the Bend' offers an outstanding
comparison between technical excellence and the need for devout
persons to pray frequently: offering the suggestion that
self-discipline and prayer are so close as to be united.
FROM John Cooper
jcooper@stic.net
After further discussions with David Henshall, I would add:
Nevil wrote Marazan in 1925, just after he had left de
Havilland in the Spring of 1924 and started work on the R100 airship. This was
years before he had formed Airspeed and moved it to Hampshire. The Sopwith Baby, actually built by Fairey, was a British single-seat tractor
seaplane used by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) from 1915 <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/
SopwithBaby.jpg/300px-SopwithBaby.jpg>. The company was
wound up in 1920 after its business collapsed. It most likely was
not a factor in Shute’s writing of Marazan. But the Fairey IIID may well have been a factor. Well over 4,000 DH-4s and their
offsprings were built and many were still in use as civil aircraft
on or before 1925; and known about by British readers in 1926. They
would probable envision one of these de Havillands while reading the
novel.
FROM David Henshall
davidhenshall@hotmail.com
Reference the excellent article in the February
Newsletter from John Cooper, can I add the following. It might be
dangerous to make too many assumptions that when writing, NSN's "go
to" choice of aircraft would be from DeHavilland.
Even in the time since the meeting in Fareham,
more evidence has emerged strengthening the links between NSN and
both the Fairey and Sopwith families. Indeed, as we discussed last
Spring, there is now ample evidence pointing to many of his aircraft
in the books being from the Fairey stable.
One such example is the Chipmunk (as featured
in Marazon).. There really was a seaplane entered into the Kings
Cup, a Fairey FIII. Even the choice of engine (as reported in the
book) is right...with there being evidence of a new powerplant
'falling off the shelf in the stores'.
I hope to be going into this in more detail at Oxford later this year.
FROM THE EDITOR
Strange weather here in Holland today. Strong winds all day. At half past
seven this morning it was snowing. The rest of the day was hail, rain and
sunshine. Spring come please.
See you all next month.
