Book Review

1941 Shute is promoted to Lieutenant Commander.

1941 Early: Shute has either a heart attack or a bad attack of wind in a train. The doctor says it's wind.

1941 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.

1941 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.

1941 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.

1941 Christmas: Shute entertains Flora Twort and friends with stories that would evolve into "Most Secret".

1942 "Pied Piper" is published generally.

1942 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.

1942 August: "Most Secret" is finished but censored till war's end. Shute is not happy.

1943 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.

1944 January: The ultimately uncontrollable Grand Panjandrum project dies in flames at Westward Ho!

1944 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.

1944 Pre June: "Pastoral" is finished.

1944 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".

1944 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".

1944 May 12: Shute is photographed at work, in uniform, dressed as Lieutenant Commander Norway.

1944 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".

1944 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.

1944 August: "Pastoral" is published.

1944 September: Shute commences work on a Stuart Turner No. 800 model petrol engine.

1944 December 20: Shute leaves the Royal Navy to work for the Ministry of Information.

1945 January 25: Shute is working on a film script of "Pastoral" to be directed by Carol Reed. Sadly the project does not go forward.

1945 March: The "Vinland The Good" screenplay in progress.

1945 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".

1945 May 07: Germany surrenders.

1945 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.

1945 Summer: Shute returns to England and reads a book by Walther White of the NAACP about US Military prejudice in England.

1945 September 02 Japan surrenders.

1945 September: Shute starts writing "The Chequer Board".

1945 "Most Secret" is finally published.

1946 "Vinland The Good" is published.

1946 February 28: "The Chequer Board" is completed.

1945 - 47 Shute writes "The Seafarers" It is a 100 page short novel that he left aside. it would re-emerge as "Requiem For A Wren".

1947 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".

1947 Autumn: Shute is already planning to fly to Australia. He meets James Riddell through a friend and discusses his plans in a general way.

1948 "No Highway" is published.

1948 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".

1948 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.

1948 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.

1948 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.

1948 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".

1948 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.

1948 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".

1948 November 26: Shute arrives in Darwin and travels across North East Australia.

1948 December 14: From Cairns, James Riddell travels separately to Sydney while Shute tours the outback in Item Willie.

1948 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".

1949 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.

1949 January 04: Shute did two 2 minute radio interviews probably for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. (these have disappeared)

1949 January 05: Shute has lunch at the Rose Bay Golf Club in Sydney. (near my home - RM)

1949 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".

1949 January 15: Shute and Riddell fly to Melbourne. After only 3 days Shute is convinced he could happily live there.

1949 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).

1949 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".

1949 January 23: Shute arrives in Alice Springs. His 2 day stay is sufficient inspiration.

1949 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.

1949 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".

1949 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.

1949 March 17: Shute and Riddell leave Item Willie to be collected later and travel from Brindisi to England by KLM airliner.

1949 March: Late: Only 10 days after returning to England Shute starts writing "A Town Like Alice".

1949 July 06: Shute finishes writing "A Town Like Alice".

1949 July 27: The first De Havilland Comet flies. The Comet is the worlds first jet airliner.

1949 Late: Shute starts writing "Round The Bend".

1949 - 1950 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".

1950 The UK Labour Government is re-elected. This is the last straw for Shute and he decides to emigrate.

1950 "A Town Like Alice" is published.

1950 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.

1950 May 13: "Round The Bend" is finished.

1950 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.

1950 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.

1950 Shutes literary earnings from 1926 to 1950 total 121,933 Pounds Sterling.

1950 - 51 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.

Nevil Shute Norway