1941
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Shute is promoted to Lieutenant Commander.
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1941
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Early: Shute has either a heart attack or a bad attack of wind in a train. The doctor
says it's wind.
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1941
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Spring: Shute conceives, in detail, "Pied Piper" during a sleepless, slow
overnight train ride to Wales with Sir Charles Goodeve of DMWD. He tells the story
to Goodeve and later takes 3 days off and dictates it to his secretary.
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1941
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Late: Frances, Heather and Shirley return to England after 15 months away. The
family move to the a large house called Pond Head on Hayling Island where they
live during the war and until leaving for Australia in August 1950.
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1941
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November 01: "Pied Piper" appears serialized in the American Magazine
Colliers. Because it is still a month before Pearl Harbour and America was
still neutral, the accompanying pictures of the German soldiers appear quite
sympathetically drawn.
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1941
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Christmas: Shute entertains Flora Twort and friends with stories that would
evolve into "Most Secret".
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1942
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"Pied Piper" is published generally.
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1942
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The film of "Pied Piper" is released under the same name. Produced
by Nunnally Johnson at 20th Century Fox it was directed by Irving Pichel,
and starred Monty Woolley, Anne Baxter, Otto Preminger and a very young Roddy McDowall.
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1942
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August: "Most Secret" is finished but censored till war's end. Shute is not happy.
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1943
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November 12: Shute tests the steering "controls" at the first steering
trials of the rocket propelled Grand Panjandrum at Westward Ho! Shute was a big
fan of rockets.
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1944
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January: The ultimately uncontrollable Grand Panjandrum project dies in flames at
Westward Ho!
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1944
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February 14: Shute attends a trial of The Swallow smoke-laying glider
at Lepe on the Beaulieu River near Exbury House. Previous trials had been to
test the flight of the Swallow and its ability to fly the required path and
height. This trial tested the smoke laying function.
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1944
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Pre June: "Pastoral" is finished.
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1944
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1944 Late February: Shute writes a series of 6 delightful "Second Front" articles
and another great article called "Beach Assault" about the approach of D-Day,
much of which are used in "Requiem for a Wren".
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1944
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April 17: A Junkers Ju 188 E-1 is shot down over Exbury crashing on the Park in
front of Exbury House. The crew of 7 don't survive the crash. Shute uses this event
in "Requiem For A Wren".
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1944
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May 12: Shute is photographed at work, in uniform, dressed as
Lieutenant Commander Norway.
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1944
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June 06 - June 10: Shute visits Normandy at D+10 Hours resulting in an unpublished
article "Journey Into Normandy" and some plot for "Requiem For A Wren".
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1944
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June 22: Shute attends trials of the "Lily" floating airfield at
Stranraer. The trial used Bazooka practice rounds on a small sized "Lily" to
simulate the loads of a Spitfire Mk VIII landing.
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1944
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August: "Pastoral" is published.
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1944
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September: Shute commences work on a Stuart Turner No. 800 model petrol engine.
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1944
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December 20: Shute leaves the Royal Navy to work for the Ministry of Information.
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1945
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January 25: Shute is working on a film script of "Pastoral" to be directed
by Carol Reed. Sadly the project does not go forward.
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1945
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March: The "Vinland The Good" screenplay in progress.
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1945
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April - May: Shute is in India and Burma writing war articles. They are not
published. He is greatly impressed by the Burmese. Much of his experience becomes
"The Chequer Board".
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1945
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May 07: Germany surrenders.
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1945
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June 21: In a letter Shute reveals that "Pastoral" which he describes
as "a trivial little book, written in a hurry" sold 330,000 copies in
the 1944 Book Club Edition and in the US it sold 52,000 in shops. It cost 8/6 in
the UK and $2.50 in the USA. It was serialised in the Australian Womens Weekly
with a circulation 600,000 (in a population of only 10 million RM) and the film
rights had been sold to Englands film mogul Alexander Korda.
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1945
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Summer: Shute returns to England and reads a book by Walther White of the
NAACP about US Military prejudice in England.
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1945
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September 02 Japan surrenders.
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1945
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September: Shute starts writing "The Chequer Board".
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1945
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"Most Secret" is finally published.
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1946
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"Vinland The Good" is published.
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1946
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February 28: "The Chequer Board" is completed.
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1945 - 47
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Shute writes "The Seafarers" It is a 100 page short novel that he left
aside. it would re-emerge as "Requiem For A Wren".
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1947
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May - June: Shute and Frances travel by car through the American East Coast, South
and Mid-West and (presumably) visited Walther White of the NAACP. Shute fished in
the Smokie Mts, saw the Indianapolis 500 and lectured on India at Fisk University
which was a Negro College. Shute's plane crashes on landing because of undercarriage
failure. This becomes inspiration for "No Highway".
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1947
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Autumn: Shute is already planning to fly to Australia. He meets James Riddell
through a friend and discusses his plans in a general way.
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1948
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"No Highway" is published.
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1948
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Tom Laing who had worked at Airspeed for 17 years dies falling asleep and
running his car off the road. Shute later used this as the means of killing
Jean's father, Arthur Paget, in "A Town Like Alice".
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1948
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February: Shute completes the Stuart Turner No. 800 model petrol engine having
spent 550 hours on it and made several of his own modifications to the design.
He kept a log of all the hours he spent on model work.
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1948
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March: Shute writes to James Riddell asking him to accompany him on his flight to
Australia. He says he has already bought a Percival Proctor V with long range tanks.
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1948
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March 08: Shute attempts another novel called "Blind Understanding"
which is another early variation of "Requiem For A Wren" but still
can't finish it.
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1948
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Summer: Shute spends a lot of time preparing for the flight including
a radio course at Hamble. Tom Cutter does the same course in "Round The Bend".
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1948
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September 22: At 12.45 Shute departs for Australia in Item Willie in the company
of James Riddell who later writes "Flight of Fancy" about the trip.
Shute has only 230 hours of solo flying experience spread over about 25 years when
they take off for the journey. He has never before flown longer than 2 hours at a
stretch but he has spent the previous year meticulously planning
the trip. Frances packs them a nice lunch.
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1948
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October 25: In Burma Shute meets Major Fletcher of The Royal Engineers who had
become U. Prajnananda, an English Buddhist priest, 27 years before. Shute
creates a similar character in "Round the Bend".
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1948
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November 26: Shute arrives in Darwin and travels across North East Australia.
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1948
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December 14: From Cairns, James Riddell travels separately to Sydney while Shute
tours the outback in Item Willie.
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1948
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December 29: Shute joins Riddell in Sydney after some serious confrontations
with Customs bureaucracy. He arrives ill disposed to like Sydney. Servicing
Item Willie means they must stay a while. Shute later describes Sydney
as "an ugly town full of drunks".
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1949
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The film of "Landfall" is released under the same name. Produced by Victor
Skutezsky at Pathe Studios it was directed by Ken Annakin, and starred Michael Denison
and Patricia Plunkett.
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1949
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January 04: Shute did two 2 minute radio interviews probably for the Australian
Broadcasting Commission. (these have disappeared)
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1949
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January 05: Shute has lunch at the Rose Bay Golf Club in Sydney. (near my home - RM)
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1949
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January 07: Shute is photographed with a Koala that he and Jimmy Riddell found
crossing the road near Palm Beach in Sydney. This would be inconceivable in 2002.
The event inspires a similar one in "The Far Country".
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1949
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January 15: Shute and Riddell fly to Melbourne. After only 3 days Shute is convinced
he could happily live there.
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1949
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January 17: Shute turns 50 while in Australia. He is charmed to receive a telegram
from a 16 year old Australian girl, Margaret Houghton of Tarrawarra, who shares his
birth date. (un-traceable so far).
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1949
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January 22: Shute is featured in an Australian Women's Weekly article about his
trip called "Nevil Shute may write a novel on Gulf country".
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1949
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January 23: Shute arrives in Alice Springs. His 2 day stay is sufficient inspiration.
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1949
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January 27: Shute is featured in a Model Engineer magazine article on his 1/8 hp
horizontal petrol (gasoline) engine made, with "considerable modifications" from
Stuart Turner No. 800 castings that he completed February 1948.
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1949
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February 10: Shute meets Mrs Geysel-Vonck who is the wife of the Shell representative
at Palembang on Sumatra. She and a group of women were forced to walk 2,000 miles
around Indonesia by the Japanese in WW2. Shute now has the final part for "A Town
Like Alice".
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1949
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March 14: 11.30am: When forced to land cross-wind by a truculent Air Traffic
Contoller at Brindisi, Shute ground loops his plane and Item Willie's undercarriage
is damaged. This terminates the trip.
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1949
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March 17: Shute and Riddell leave Item Willie to be collected later and travel from
Brindisi to England by KLM airliner.
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1949
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March: Late: Only 10 days after returning to England Shute starts writing "A Town
Like Alice".
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1949
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July 06: Shute finishes writing "A Town Like Alice".
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1949
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July 27: The first De Havilland Comet flies. The Comet is the worlds first jet airliner.
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1949
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Late: Shute starts writing "Round The Bend".
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1949 - 1950
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Shute writes a draft article called My Week. He describes how
at Pond Head he writes from 9am to 1pm every day of the week. On one Sunday
every month he attends church. His secretary comes 3 mornings a week. He
says he reads no more than 2 or 3 novels a year preferring technical
journals. Inspired by Winston Churchill he does some oil painting and enjoys
it. He describes an alternate week during the flight to Australia. He
describes flying in heavy rain at palm tree height. He later used this
experience in "The Rainbow and The Rose".
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1950
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The UK Labour Government is re-elected. This is the last straw for Shute and he
decides to emigrate.
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1950
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"A Town Like Alice" is published.
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1950
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May 12: Shute writes to Heather from Pond Head. He will finish Round
the Bend the next day and expects it to be a financial failure. He will meet
Heather in Oxford and see the rowing races. Shute leaves for Australia soon
and Heather leaves on December 21st on the Stratheden. Shute includes a
drawing of an over-eating and under-exercizing Heather being rolled off the
ship at Melbourne.
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1950
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May 13: "Round The Bend" is finished.
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1950
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July - August: Shute and his family emigrate to Australia and first move to a house
in Mt Eliza on the Mornington Peninsular, Victoria not far from Langwarrin. Shute
brings along an Austin Princess car.
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1950
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September 30: Shute is informed that he has been awarded The France and Germany Star,
The Defense Medal and the War Medal 1939-1945. These medals have now disappeared and
he may never have received them as he was already on the way to Australia when the
letter was written. Shute's letter of inquiry was dated September 09, 1949. The reply
is dated one year and 21 days later.
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1950
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Shutes literary earnings from 1926 to 1950 total 121,933 Pounds Sterling.
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1950 - 51
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Shute visits the Mt Buller area researching "The Far Country" and stays at
the Merrijig pub and writes notes. He is reserved but popular with the locals.
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