Search - List of Books by Nevil Shute

Prewar

• Stephen Morris (1923, published 1961): a young pilot takes on a daring and dangerous mission.

• Pilotage (1924, published 1961): a continuation of "Stephen Morris."

• Marazan (1926); a convict rescues a downed pilot who helps him break up a drug ring.

• So Disdained (1928), written soon after the General Strike of 1926, reflected the debate in British Society about socialism and considered whether Italian fascism was an effective antidote.

• Lonely Road (1932): This novel deals with conspiracies and counterconspiracies, in an experimental writing style.

• Ruined City (1938; U.S. title: Kindling) a banker revives a shipbuilding company through questionable financial dealings. He goes to jail for fraud, but the shipyard revives. Ruined City was distilled from Shute's experiences in trying to set up his own aircraft company.

• An Old Captivity (1940): the story of a pilot hired to take aerial photographs of a site in Greenland, who suffers a drug-induced flashback to Viking times.

War

• What Happened to the Corbetts (1938; U.S Title: Ordeal), forecasts the bombing of Southampton.

• A Channel Story (1940): A young RAF pilot is accused of sinking a British sub.

• Pied Piper (1942). An old man rescues seven children (one of them the niece of a Gestapo officer) from France during the Nazi invasion.

• Pastoral (1944): Crew relations and love at an airbase in rural surroundings in wartime England.

• Most Secret (1945): Unconventional attacks on German forces using a French fishing boat.

• The Chequer Board (1947): A dying man looks up three wartime comrades. The novel contains an interesting discussion of racism in the American Army: British townsfolk prefer the company of black soldiers.

Australia

• No Highway (1948): An eccentric "boffin" at RAE Farnborough predicts metal fatigue in a new airliner. Interestingly, the Comet failed for just this reason several years later, in 1954. Set in Britain and Canada.

• A Town Like Alice (1950; U.S. title: The Legacy): the hero and heroine meet while both are prisoners of the Japanese. After the war they seek each other out and reunite in a small Australian town that would have no future if not for her plans to turn it into "a town like Alice."

• Round the Bend (1951), about a new religion developing around an aircraft mechanic. Shute considered this his best novel. It tackles racism, condemning the White Australia policy.

• The Far Country (1952): A young woman travels to Australia. A condemnation of British socialism and the national health service.

• In the Wet (1953); an Anglican priest tells the story of an Australian aviator. This embraces a drug-induced flash forward to Britain in the 1980s. The novel criticizes British socialism.

• Requiem for a Wren (1955): The story of a young British woman who, plagued with guilt after shooting down a plane carrying Polish refugees in WW2, moves to Australia to work anonymously for the parents of her (now deceased) Australian lover, whilst the lover's brother searches for her in Britain.

• Beyond the Black Stump (1956): The ethical standards of an unconventional family living in a remote part of Australia are compared with those of a conventional family living in Washington State.

• On the Beach (1957), Shute's best-known novel, is set in Melbourne, whose population is awaiting death from the effects of an atomic war. It was serialized in more than 40 newspapers, and adapted into a 1959 film starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. In 2007, Gideon Haigh wrote an article in The Monthly arguing that On the Beach is Australia's most important novel: "Most novels of apocalypse posit at least a group of survivors and the semblance of hope. On The Beach allows nothing of the kind."

• Trustee from the Toolroom (1960) about the recovery of a lost legacy of diamonds from a wrecked sailboat. Set in Britain, the Pacific Islands and the U.S. northwest.

• The Rainbow and the Rose (1958): One man's three love stories; narration shifts from the narrator to the main character and back.

• The Seafarers (2000): Novella recently published. The story of a dashing naval Lieutenant and a Wren who meet right at the end of the Second World War. Their romance is blighted by differences in social background and economic constraints; in unhappiness each turns to odd jobs in boating circles.

• Stephen Morris and Pilotage (1923, published posthumously in 1961) ISBN 1-84232-297-4
• Marazan (1926) ISBN 1-84232-265-6
• So Disdained (1928) (also published under the title The Mysterious Aviator) ISBN 1-84232-294-X
• Lonely Road (1932) ISBN 1-84232-261-3
• Ruined City (1938) (also published under the title Kindling) ISBN 1-84232-290-7
• What Happened to the Corbetts (1939) (also published under the title Ordeal) ISBN 1-84232-302-4
• An Old Captivity (1940) ISBN 1-84232-275-3
• A Channel Story (1940) ISBN 1-84232-258-3
• Pied Piper (1942) ISBN 1-84232-278-8
• Most Secret (1942 - published 1945) ISBN 1-84232-269-9
• Pastoral (1944) ISBN 1-84232-277-X
• Vinland the Good (1946) ISBN 1-8894-39-11-8
• The Chequer Board (1947) ISBN 1-84232-248-6
• No Highway (1948) ISBN 1-84232-273-7
• A Town Like Alice (1950) (also published under the title The Legacy) ISBN 1-84232-300-8
• Round the Bend (1951) ISBN 1-84232-289-3
• The Far Country (1952) ISBN 1-84232-251-6
• In the Wet (1953) ISBN 1-84232-254-0
• Autobiography of an Engineer (1954) ISBN 1-84232-291-5
• Requiem for a Wren (1955) (also published under the title The Breaking Wave) ISBN 1-84232-286-9
• Beyond the Black Stump (1956) ISBN 1-84232-246-X
• On the Beach (1957) ISBN 1-84232-276-1
• The Rainbow and the Rose (1958) ISBN 1-84232-283-4
• Trustee from the Toolroom (1960) ISBN 1-84232-301-6
• The Seafarers (published in 2000) ISBN 1-889439-32-0