Nevil Shute Norway Foundation

Newsletter dated April 2012

Letters to the Editor

From Philip Nixon

Nevil Shute Weekend in Maidenhead on May 19/20

Saturday 19 May

Meet up in Maidenhead at a hotel (TBA) before taking a trip to West Ealing to visit Nevil Shute's birthplace. We are looking to insert in to the schedule a visit to the Maidenhead Heritage Centre that day. This is a small museum and is the official museum for the Air Transport Auxiliary*

Go to www.atamuseum.org for more info.

Later, that evening, we will have a dinner together in Maidenhead. For those unfamiliar with Maidenhead, it is a town on the river Thames in Royal Berkshire, situated west of London and approximately 25 minutes drive From Heathrow airport.

Sunday 20th May

Spend the day at White Waltham aerodrome, scene of the UK HQ of the Royal Flight in In The Wet. Our room is "The Snug", in which we will have on-topic presentations. We are also arranging a guided visit to the hangars. Refreshments & buffet lunch will be provided. http://www.wlac.co.uk/wlac/

The costs of the museum visit and day at White Waltham is yet to be finalised but early indications are that a budget of £30 per head is likely. We are hoping to avoid hiring coaches, if enough of us are prepared to share seats in our own vehicles.

Speakers have yet to be confirmed and volunteers to present a talk are welcome to get in touch with me (Phil).


From Chris & Penny Morton

TAS2013 is on track, with plans coming together nicely. To be known as "The Rainbow Connection", the conference will be From Sunday, 13th to Saturday, 19th of October (2013) at Hobart's historic venue, The Old Woolstore.

The plan at this time is to follow previous conference structure, with two full days and one half day of presentations (allowing a free half day), plus two full days of excursions. We'll have a welcome cocktail evening following registration, a banquet and, of course, interesting speakers.

As Chris said last month, Tasmania is an island state with a plethora of diverse attractions. In order to justify the additional cost of just getting here, do give strong consideration to spending an extra week, before or after the conference, to explore its possibilities at leisure.

Questions/comments: Chris and Penny, oldgaffers@gmail.com


From the US Library

There has been steady business since the first of the year and it is interesting that Pied Piper and Crossing To Freedom are the most requested items. They have crisscrossed the country and Northern Border several times. Special thanks for those patrons who have sent extra dollars along with the postage. Every little bit helps !


From Dan Telfair

There are many of us who are satisfied to read and reread Nevil's books. There are also many who collect everything From paperbacks, to reprints, first editions, signed first editions, films, audio books, etc. Then there are those few fanatics who are only happy if their collections include additional Nevil Shute memorabilia. I am in the latter category.

Many years ago, through the generosity of both my wife Zia, and my good friend Jim MacDougald, I acquired the only oil portrait ever painted of Nevil. A short time ago, I also acquired Nevil's personal slide rule, which I mounted below his portrait. Given the title of his autobiography, I thought that was very fitting.

However, the slide rule was missing it's cursor. This was a 1930s slide rule of German manufacture. As you might imagine, the cursor was made of transparent celluloid, a material that deteriorates with age. I suspect that the cursor on Nevil's slide rule broke off and was discarded years ago.

Needless to say, I was not satisfied with the slide rule minus cursor. With the help of Dick Rose, owner of Vintage Instruments (www.rose-vintage-instruments.com), I have been able to replace the cursor with an original. For the first time in many years, Nevil's slide rule is once again complete, and mounted in a place of honor under his portrait. Photos of both are included should David Dawson-Taylor choose to display them on the Nevil Shute web site.

I am indebted to Dick Rose for his assistance in obtaining the cursor. Should any of you have need of his assistance in obtaining antique slide rules or other pre-electronic era computational instruments, please contact him at rarose@rose-vintage-instruments.com.

Editor: Photo's of the portrait and the slide rule can be found here: http://www.nevilshute.org/virtualmuseum2.php#sliderule

From Charles D

This is a short film about constructing a patrol plane in the 1950's. This is probably at the end of the individualistic design and build era. www.nfb.ca/film/birth_of_giant/?ec=en20120316


From J.B. Robert

Those looking for a copy of this book (and other NSN publications) may want to use DealOz (dealoz.com) which shows 20+ bookstores where it is available sorted in descending order by price.


From Bill Levy

Extraordinary testament to the human spirit. Three minutes of inspiration. vimeo.com/23095780

Editor: Nothing to do with Nevil Shute, but….

From Laura Schneider

Last weekend, the Tri-State Nevil Shute Book Society (formerly the NJ Nevil Shute Book Society) celebrated its 20th anniversary. In 1992, Paul Shein and Art Cornell founded this group in Montclair, NJ. We are grateful for their initiative and are pleased to be carrying on the legacy. The Tri-State group represents, NJ, NYC and Eastern PA. Original member Larry Freeman was with us on Saturday and recalled the group's beginning. I didn't know Larry 20 years ago but at 91, he still has a beautiful full head of hair! During the celebration, we did manage to discuss our assigned book, "Chequer Board", with Beall Fowler as our Facilitator. We also weighed in on "In The Wet", which will be examined next month at the White Waltham weekend. Here's to 20 more years!!

From THE EDITOR

The newsletter is late, this time because I for one reason or the other wasn't able to send email for 2 days.

From the Netherlands where spring has really come, see you all next month