You all knew John through his lifelong love of the works of Nevil Shute. To me, he was my Dad and my hero.
John first gained his love of Nevil Shute's novels, and indeed his lifelong love of reading, from his mother Elaine.
John had a long and successful career as an engineer and took over his father's successful businesses. In the early 2000s he decided that, unlike his father, he was definitely going to retire. He started to wind up the businesses and considered what he was going to do in retirement.
One day in 2002, he typed the words "Nevil Shute" into an Internet search. Little did he know what this would start! He had discovered a whole community of like-minded individuals.
John attended his first Nevil Shute conference in Portsmouth, UK in 2003 and offered to give a presentation. I remember him getting the email with the conference programme and realising that he was in esteemed company. He was a little nervous, but he needn't have been. His presentation went down well and it was the start of many happy hours spent with fellow Shutists, or Nev-ites as his son-in-law Stuart would refer to you all as! We teased him about it, but John was always very happy when "Nev-ing".
Following on from Portsmouth 2003, John looked forward to future Nevil Shute gatherings. These took him internationally with trips to the USA and Australia. He also organised and helped to organise many of the events, using his experience for the benefit of others. My mum, Janice, enjoyed attending the UK events alongside Dad and meeting all of you.
In 2003, John met Mike Meehan, who became a great friend. John had considered writing a biography of Nevil Shute, Mike agreed and the idea gained momentum. "Parallel Motion" was published in 2011. I remember when Dad first showed me the book in real life and gave me a signed copy. He was so proud.
John's research continued and he became particularly interested In Nevil Shute's engineering career and his role in the R100 and R101 airship projects. This led to the publication of his second book, "Airship on a Shoestring" in 2014. He researched many areas of Nevil Shute's life and work, and it's been so interesting to go through all the files on his computer and see the extent of his work.
John was involved with many Nevil Shute related projects, including the exhibition at the Yorkshire Air Museum, which can still be seen today. He was also very honoured to meet Heather Mayfield and Mary Stopes-Roe and introduce them to each other.
I know that you all have your own memories of him, and it's been a great comfort to me and my family to hear many of these. He taught me the value of hard work and education, and he had an insatiable thirst for knowledge. I try to honour his legacy by thinking about what I can learn every day.
Mum and I are happy to be contacted directly to share memories. My email is claire.elizabeth.evans4@gmail.com
Claire Evans, February 2026
By Laura Schneider
John Anderson will be remembered as the foremost authority on Nevil Shute and steady leader of the Nevil Shute Norway Foundation.
John's Shute Conference presentations were informative, interesting and unique not the least because of his ability to make engineering understandable to those less knowledgeable. John wore many hats but his favorite may have been Dust Pirate, when he would research for hours and days on end. Several of us had the good fortune to work with him and John made each discovery exciting and fun. John was modest, curious, clever, a little mischievous and always looking to learn. He was a dear friend and is deeply missed.
By Alison Jenner
I first met John in 2003 at Southsea, which was the first conference I attended. He was a very gentlemanly man, funny and well read. And then he gave a talk about the probable model for scientist Mr Honey, the hero of "No Highway" which blew me away with his research, erudition and insight. That was John all over. He was a mine of information and always ready to help others among our party. Over successive years I got to know him better as he got more involved in the background to the Foundation, in arranging conferences and "mini-Nev" weekends, and in understanding more about Nevil Shute himself.
John's enthusiasm was catching and he organised a number of weekend trips, including to Exbury House in 2004, York, Oxford, Bournemouth and Shrewsbury, where we visited key locations, examined important documents, and met significant people, culminating in the weeklong conference in York in 2009.
As well as organising these meetings John also undertook deep inquiries into Shute's life and works, embarking upon an adventurous project, writing a complete biography of the writer, finishing the story which Nevil himself had left off in the 1950s. The resulting volume "Parallel Motion," (2011), was a triumph of diligent research and was extremely readable for the non-technical, as was his later study, "Airship on a Shoestring: the Story of R.100,&quit; (2013). He got involved with providing text and photographs for an exhibition at Elvington Air Museum on "Yorkshire Pioneers of the Air,&quit; which included Nevil Shute Norway and his shareholder in Airspeed and record breaking pilot, Amy Johnson.
All of this is worthy of record but the charming Yorkshireman, who often seemed to have a twinkle of mischief in his eye, was always a supportive and helpful friend. We shall not see his like again.
By Nick Shapowal
I first met John Anderson at the UK 2003 conference at Southsea/Portsmouth. A few days in to the event as we regathered after a break it was mentioned to conference that John and I were keeping up a practice of pairings of several Shute characters by sharing time enjoying a smoke together - I smoked then. I recall how interested he was in whoever he met discovering what could about them while in their company, and he was good to be with.
We met in 2012 attending the White Waltham gathering. Andy Burgess gave me a lift to the National Archives at Kew where we had lunch. John was able to tell us all about the facilities there, and of course he was well familiar with them as he had spent much time there researching for his book Parallel Motion, published only the previous year, 2001. Andy and I arrived to find John already there, so familiar was John with the journey there.
I recall how at Exbury in 2007 while at the Beaulieu River gathering it seemed to many that we'd not be able to visit the crash site of the Junkers with John Stanley, as the way out of Exbury garden into the field seemed blocked by a gate with lock and chain. John and I looked at each other and to us as engineers the solution was obvious - we lifted the gate off its hinges while leaving the chain in place.
He was pleased that Richard Thorn had published his biography of Shute too, saying that Richard's book approached Nevil's life from such a different direction.
I was pleased to meet John whenever we were "Shuting" together and will recall him fondly. We are fortunate he has left us with his well researched books.
By Joost Meulenbroek
I first met John, during the Southsea conference in 2003. Being new to the Nevil Shute Foundation, and being the only person from the Netherlands, I was warmly welcomed by John and other foundation members.
In 2009, during the conference in York, we came back from our evening at the York Aviation Museum. Many of us were in a uniform of the era. John was one of them, he had rented a fancy uniform. Unfortunately it was a size too big for John. Now I didn't see this happen, as I was in the back of the bus, but apparently, when John came out of the bus, his trousers fell down. And somebody who was just behind him shouted to us: $quot;Commander Anderson has lost his pants".
In Oxford in 2013, John had just received some money from his book Airship on a shoestring. John, Phil Nixon and I were in Oxford and John decided to treat us to a meal. We went to a place where they served "real burgers" and we had a good time there.
I used to phone John on his birthday, the 25th of May. Last 25 May I also called him, but spoke very short with him, as he was just leaving his house, with his family to have a meal. Little did I know.....
He will be missed, as he was one of the nicest people that I knew.
By Beall Fowler
John Anderson was both a dedicated Shutist and a scholar of things Shute. He made so many contributions towards our knowledge and appreciation of Nevil Shute and his legacy. The list is long and includes organizing the international gathering at York, authoring not one but two books on Nevil Shute, promoting museum exhibitions and related tangible remembrances, and many others, including his multi-faceted service to the Foundation. Most of all, he was a splendid human being, self-effacing and always respectful in his interactions with others.
By Andy Burgess
I first met John at the 2003 Southsea conference. We rapidly realised that, as well as our mutual interest in Nevil Shute, we shared many others.
Over the next 10 years or so John and I visited the National Archives, Cambridge University and the BAe archives at Farnborough to research the various aspects of Shute's life. Along with meeting at the many Shute gatherings I greatly enjoyed spending time with John and talking about Shute and our many other mutual interests.
John was a modest and self-effacing person, characteristics which belied his knowledge and insight into all areas of science and technology. With his dogged research he became the undoubted authority on Shute's life and fortunately has left us with two excellent books that are a tribute to his efforts. His passing is a great loss to all and particularly to the NSN Foundation. Due to personal circumstances I was unable to meet with John in recent years as much as I would have liked and it is now a great personal sadness that it will not be possible to do so.