Nevil Shute 1899—1960
Nevil Shute Norway was a British novelist and aeronautical engineer. His novels are written in a simple, highly readable style, with clearly delineated plot lines. Where there is a romantic element, sex is referred to only obliquely. Many of the stories are introduced by a narrator who is not a character in the story. The most common theme in his novels is the dignity of work, spanning all classes, whether an Eastern European bar “hostess” (Ruined City) or brilliant boffin (No Highway).
Available eBooks
An Old Captivity (1940)
Young pilot Donald Ross has little in common with the Oxford archaeologist who has employed him on an expedition to the Arctic - and still less with his... read more »
A Town Like Alice (1950)
Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European... read more »
The Chequer Board (1947)
John Turner, a young man with a checkered past, has been told he has just one year to live. He decides to use his remaining time in search of three very... read more »
In the Wet (1953)
Shute's speculative glance into the future of the British Empire. An elderly clergyman stationed in the Australian bush is called to the bedside of a... read more »
Landfall (1940)
A romantic World War II adventure about the strength of true love and how it can overcome any obstacle. A British air reconnaissance officer falls for a... read more »
Lonely Road (1932)
Malcolm Stevenson, a wealthy ex-naval officer haunted by his memories of the war, finds his lonely life turned upside down one night when he runs into... read more »
Marazan (1926)
A story of flying, drug smuggling and murder in the 1920s. Pilot Philip Stenning crashes his aircraft while flying from London to Devon. He is rescued... read more »
Most Secret (1942)
Aboard a fishing boat named “Genevieve,” a small group of British officers and French fishermen—armed only with a flame thrower and small... read more »
No Highway (1948)
Theodore Honey is a shy, inconspicuous engineer whose eccentric interests are frowned upon in aviation circles. When a passenger plane crashes in... read more »
On the Beach (1957)
After a nuclear World War III has destroyed most of the globe, the few remaining survivors in southern Australia await the radioactive cloud that is... read more »
Pastoral (1944)
World War II pilot Peter Marshall leads the most successful bombing crew at his airbase, having survived an unusual number of extremely dangerous... read more »
Requiem For A Wren (1955)
Sidelined by a wartime injury, fighter pilot Alan Duncan reluctantly returns to his parents' remote sheep station in Australia to take the place of his... read more »
Round the Bend (1951)
When Tom Cutter hires Constantine Shaklin as an engineer in his air freight business, he little realises the extraordinary gifts of his new recruit... read more »
Ruined City (1938)
Through a series of mishaps, Henry Warren, a recently divorced City financier, ends up in hospital in a Northern town ruined by the closure of its... read more »
So Disdained (1928)
When Peter Moran picks up a man on the roadside while driving through a bitter rainy night on the South Downs, he embarks upon an adventure that will... read more »
The Far Country (1952)
Jennifer fled the drab monotony of post-war London. When she landed in Australia, it was like coming home. She loved it and when she met Carl, she had... read more »
Trustee from the Toolroom (1960)
Keith Stewart is an ordinary man. However, one day he is called upon to undertake an extraordinary task. When his sister's boat is wrecked in the... read more »
What Happened to the Corbetts (1939)
Set in 1938, this novel tells the story of the Corbetts, a family preparing for the coming war. As the world begins to collapse around them, they decide... read more »