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1951
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January 07: "Round The Bend" is serialized in the Sydney Morning Herald.
In the introduction Shute is said to be among the 3 Top Selling Writers in The
British Commonwealth. He earns $30,000.00 a year from America alone.
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1951
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"Round The Bend" is published.
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1951
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The film of "No Highway" is released under the title "No
Highway" in the UK and "No Highway in The Sky" in the US.
Produced by Louis D. Lighton at 20th Century Fox it was directed by Henry
Kostner and starred James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich and Glynnis Johns.
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1951
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Shutes plane Item Willie is shipped from England to Australia and set up at Essendon Airport.
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1951
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March: Shute starts writing "The Far Country".
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1951
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May 11: Shute is making notes for "In The Wet".
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1951
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May - November: While writing "In The Wet", Shute makes notes to
buy: " 12" 35watt straight Osram architectural (fluorescent tubes
that are) 229mm (wide) to edge of holders" for his model workshop. Modern
fluorescent lighting is mentioned in "Trustee From The Toolroom".
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1951
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Mid: Around this time Shute has yet another crippling chest pain and, the doctors
finding no cause, decides to give up flying. In hospital for 3 weeks he reflects
on his life.
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1951
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July 31: "The Far Country" is finished.
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1951
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November: Shute starts writing "In The Wet".
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1952
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"The Far Country" is published.
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1952
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May 25: "In The Wet" is completed.
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1952
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Early June: Shute visits Alice Springs in the company of Alan Moorehead
(1910-1983) who was a Melbourne born, international journalist and author.
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1952
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Middle: The Shutes move into their new house at Langwarrin, Victoria on 100 acres
where he raised cattle and up to 400 pigs at a time. The farm expanded but never
made a profit.
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1952
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Shute's income exceeds 32,000 Australian Pounds.
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1953
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February: Shute travels to the Port Davey area of Tasmania in the yacht
Saona. He visits the King family who live in an inaccessible area. In
1957-58 Shute writes about the area in The Rainbow and The Rose.
In 2003 the yacht Saona was still sailing in Tasmanian waters.
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1953
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February: Shute is writing "Slide Rule".
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1953
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Early: Shute writes a long memoir to Gerald Pawle about the DMWD.
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1953
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March - April 1954: Four De Havilland Comets crash in circumstances remarkably
similar to those in "No Highway". Humourists at the Inquiries ask "Where
is Mr Honey?"
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1953
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May: "In The Wet" is published.
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1953
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Middle: Shute begins writing "Requiem for a Wren".
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1953
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October: Shute writes the Author's Note to "Slide Rule".
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1953
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Shute's income exceeds 40,000 Australian Pounds.
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1954
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"Slide Rule" is published.
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1954
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February 09: Shute corresponds with Hansell Engineering in Vancouver for details of
a housewife's bus routes and favoured shops in Vancouver. A&P supermarket wins
over Safeway. Shute worked with Sydney Hansell and Sir Dennistoun Burney in 1939 on
the Gliding Torpedo. Sydney Hansell also worked in the DMWD.
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1954
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February 09: Shute corresponds with someone in Seattle for details about suburbs, bus
routes, car routes etc.
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1954
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Pre-September: Shute travels for 6 weeks in the West Australian Oilfields in a custom
built Ford Automatic Station Wagon. He collects material that would be used
in "Beyond The Black Stump" and "Incident at Eucla".
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1954
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September: Shute travels in the American Rockies by packhorse with Dr Gilstrap to
Swamp Lake (7840 feet) in Oregon's Wallowa Mountains. Material collected appears
in "Beyond The Black Stump".
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1954
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September 15: Unknown to Shute, his future biggest fan is born in Canberra, Australia.
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1954
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December 20: "Beyond The Black Stump", originally titled "The
Kindest Goanna", in progress.
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1954
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Shute's income exceeds 31,000 Australian Pounds.
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1955
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"Requiem for a Wren" / "The Breaking Wave" is published.
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1955
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Early: Shute is writing "Beyond The Black Stump".
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1955
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August 16: Shute is accused by an American woman of anti-semitism. He replies
refuting the charge.
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1955
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November: Shute has a minor heart attack in London and is hospitalized.
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1955
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December 01 Shute returns to Australia from London and New York. Heather has been
travelling with him.
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1955
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Shute's income exceeds 35,000 Australian Pounds.
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1956
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Early: Shute writes to a friend: "I suddenly went crazy the other day and ordered an
open two-seater Jaguar XK140 so you will probably see my obituary before long".
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1956
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March 13: "On The Beach" is in progress.
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1956
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May 11: Shute receives his new 3.442 liter Jaguar XK140 Special Equipment
roadster. Claimed to have a top speed of around 145 miles per hour (230 km/h),
more experienced reports place it at 130 mph (210 km/h) in "favourable
conditions". The registration number was GMP-834. Shute justifies the
purchase as research for "On The Beach". Frances mostly drives
French cars. In the 1950s she has a Citroen.
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1956
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July 25: The film of "A Town Like Alice" is reported as premiering
in Alice Springs a couple of days before. The film is released under the same
title in the UK and as "The Rape of Malaya" in the US.(!) Produced
by Josef Janni at Rank it was directed by Jack Lee and starred Virginia McKenna
and Peter Finch. The film concentrates on the 1st half of the novel. At the
Alice Springs premiere Shute is reported as seeming "a little dismayed" at
the truncated story.
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1956
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"Beyond The Black Stump" is published.
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1956
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October 05: Shute corresponds with Major General F Kingsley Norris CB CBE DSO
ED MD QHP FCNA asking for and getting corrections for the draft of "On The
Beach". Kingsley is a prominent writer and lecturer on many subjects
including the effects of atomic war on health.
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1956
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November 06: Shute drives the Jaguar in his first recorded race.
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1956
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Late: "On The Beach" is completed.
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1956
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Shute writes a foreword for Gerald Pawle's "The Secret War". It is published
in 1956 and is about the DMWD.
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1956
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Shute's income exceeds 40,000 Australian Pounds.
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1957
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"On The Beach" is published.
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1957
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Shute completes a Stuart Turner Double 10 model steam engine, again with his
own modifications.
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1957
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July 15: Shute and Frances go on a "writing holiday" to Fiji. Details
gained are used in "The Rainbow and the Rose".
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1957
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July 17: Shute is reported meeting friend and Airspeed test pilot George Errington
who is delivering Airspeed planes to Australia. This probably happened in Sydney
airport on Shute's way to Fiji.
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1957
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July 27: The Korean War Truce is signed. In "Requiem for a Wren" this
event deprives Janet of any further hope of war.
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1957
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August 04: Harry Worrall (1888 - August 4th 1957) dies not long after
visiting Shute in Melbourne. Harry was Shute's favourite pilot-instructor at
the Yorkshire Flying Club in 1929. To Shute he was an archetypal and ideal
pilot. Shute very soon begins writing "The Rainbow and The Rose" which is a
clear tribute to pilots like Harry.
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1957 - 58
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Shute corresponds with Harry Rigby, Australian WW1 pilot and Test Pilot about
Sopwith Camels with Clerget engines. This is research for "The Rainbow and
The Rose".
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1957
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November 07: "The Rainbow and The Rose" is in progress.
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1957
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Shute's income exceeds 40,000 Australian Pounds.
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1958
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"The Rainbow and the Rose" is published.
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1958
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1958: April 20: Shute drives in his last recorded race.
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1958
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April 25: Shute makes a will leaving the remainder, after caring for his family, to
Balliol College Oxford and Shrewsbury School for the benefit of Commonwealth students.
His next book deals with a will and a trustee.
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1958
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August 24: Shute travels to England for the Model Engineer Exhibition. This becomes
inspiration for "Trustee From The Toolroom".
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1958
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August: When Shute is in Milan he is reported to have spoken angrily about the film
of "On The Beach".
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1958
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September 14: Shute and Mrs. Norway appear in The Sydney Morning Herald returning
from England and the USA Shute emphatically says he's "not going into paperbacks".
Heather has been travelling with them.
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1958
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November 11: "Trustee From The Toolroom" is in progress.
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1958
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November 28: Item Willie, Shute's plane which he had sold around 1952, is scrapped.
Due to the effect of extreme desert heat on her English glue, her engine comes loose
from its mounts on a landing approach. The owner, Keith Singh, lands safely with one
hand on the controls and the other restraining a panicking policeman from jumping out
while they are still in the air. Only her compass survives.
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1958
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December: Shute appears in a list of entrants for a race, driving as Number 10, but
does not appear to have competed.
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1958
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December 22 Shute is reported as being in a Melbourne hospital having
suffered a heart attack. Other sources say Shute has had a major stroke. In
a personal letter, Shute later describes it as a minor stroke. Shirley
returns to Langwarrin from Vienna where she was studying German.
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1958
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Shute's income exceeds 40,000 Australian Pounds.
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1959
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January 15, 16, 17: The film of "On Beach" begins at the Wilson farm in
Harkaway Road. Berwick. Each day the temperatures were 110 F (43 C) and the
flies were terrible. Shute Avenue and Kramer Drive in Berwick were built over
the former property, which was sub-divided and built on in 1970.
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1959
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March 02: Shute writes to Flora Twort. He says his heart trouble was a
light stroke and he finds a stroke "more of an indignity than a disease".
Shute can drive in the country but not in traffic. Shirley is chauffering Shute
around. Shute remarks that they don't yet have a television. TV only started
in Australia in 1957. He thinks English TV would be worth it but has doubts
about Australian TV.
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1959
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Shute commences work on a 30 c.c. Seal Major four-cylinder petrol engine designed
by Edgar T. Westbury. Westbury provided the basis for Keith Stewart in
"Trustee From the Toolroom". Shute died before the model's completion and
the parts were passed to his friend L R East who wrote about Shute in the Model
Engineer in December 1963.
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1959
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Shute writes a foreword to Miles and Beryl Smeeton's story of their yachts repeated
capsizing and dismasting. This story was inspiration for "Trustee From The Toolroom".
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1959
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May: Shirley returns to England to help Frances' parents settle into
the Cambridge home that Shute has renovated for them.
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1959
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Mid May: Shute has a small recurrence of his stroke after reducing his
medication. This leaves him cross-eyed and affects his writing.
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1959
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May 29: Shute writes to Flora Twort. Shute now writes using a tape
recorder. Heather has taken over as his secretary. Shute recommends Flora
meet Australian artist and author Russell Foreman. Shute says that in the
mornings he writes, in the afternoons he works on the farm and he spends the
evenings in the workshop. Shute and Frances plan to go to Europe in the
middle of 1960.
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1959
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September: Shute writes a 25,000 word memorandum to Prime Minister Robert Menzies about
the economic condition of artists in Australia. He argues strongly against writers getting
financial aid.
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1959
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September: Shirley returns to Vienna to study German.
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1959
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October 01: Shute's letter to the Model Engineer is published describing his adaption
of a small power-shaper to a hacksaw machine. The article shows a view of his workshop
at Langwarrin.
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1959
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November: Shute begins work on "Incident at Eucla".
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1959
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December 08: Shute declares that he will not attend the premiere of "On The Beach".
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1959
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December 17: The film of "On The Beach" premieres at the Regent Theater in Melbourne
under the same title. Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer at United Artists it
starred Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, and Anthony Perkins. Shirley Norway
believes that Shute's intense anger over the film version, in which it was made clear
that Dwight and Moira's had sex, hastened Shute's death. To his credit, Gregory Peck
fought the changes but lost out to Stanley Kubrick.
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1959
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Shute's income exceeds 40,000 Australian Pounds. In 1959 Shute paid 39,000 Australian
Pounds in income tax.
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1960
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January 11: Shute writes a friendly letter to David Martin who is writing an
article on him for Meanjin. After Shute's death Martin writes an admiring
article / obituary called 'The Mind That Conceived "On The Beach"'.
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1960
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January 12: Shute falls ill at his typewriter having written the following sentence
in the unfinished and unpublished "Incident at Eucla". "There was
a fluffy haired young girl with them, helping somewhat ineffectually and she was
weeping, the tears running quietly down her cheeks". An ambulance is called
about noon. Shute loses consciousness in the ambulance. He dies that evening at the hospital.
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1960
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January 13: The day after Shute's death it is reported that "Trustee From
The Toolroom" has been selected for the US Book Of The Month Club.
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1960
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January 15, 11.30am: Shute's funeral service and cremation are conducted at
Springvale Crematorium in Victoria. His ashes are later taken to England and
scattered in The Solent.
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1960
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March 28: "Trustee From The Toolroom" is published posthumously and
becomes one of the US top ten fiction best sellers of 1960.
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1960
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June: Shute's portrait is entered in the Archibald Prize.
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