In my last post I mentioned Ruined City by Shute as an unlikely companion novel to PG Wodehouse’s Big Money, with a very different style but some similar themes.
What affected him deeply (according to my Dad an aero engineer just a bit younger) was his work on one of two airships R100 and R101; he was on the 'free enterprise' one but when the government sponsored one crashed and burned that was it all over for airships. (They were filled with hydrogen which is highly flammable.) Town Like Alice explicitly celebrates free enterprise as well as engineers and so do other novels to greater or less. On racism and class prejudice in Ruined City, this is the protagonist but not Shute perhaps? As he was very non racist in The Chequer Board notably. EG the story (based on truth) about segregated Southern regiment stationed in English countryside whose officers explained to the local pub that Black soldiers should not be allowed into the pub used by the Whites - and then met a sign excluding white US soldiers from that pub... Alice too is respectful of Aboriginal Australians and also Malay though understandably hostile to Japanese. 'Landfall' has class issues, working class girl with air force officer, and a bit of gender politics, treated sentimentally but without prejudiced attitudes. Ruined City title I took as derived from 'The Waste Land' but may be wrong. Protagonist goes to goal 3 years doesn't he? Having defrauded investors to revive the shipyard. I think it's a story about overcoming class prejudice and the moral decision he then takes. I owe gratitude to Shute: my Dad in late 90s would read and reread his books when he'd lost the ability to read anything else at all.
Thank you so much for that background about the airships. It sounds a bit like Frank Whipple whose development of the jet engine was, I understand, more obstructed than helped by the British government (and who left Britain for America)? I agree that Shute's books are very much about free enterprise and individualism, and I think that's a big part of their appeal (regardless of whatever politics the reader has).
"I think it's a story about overcoming class prejudice and the moral decision he then takes". Agree with this. However, I do think there is a jarring racist/xenophobic element in Ruined City that I've never noticed in any other Shute novel I've read. I do think it may not be a coincidence that it's written at a time of economic pressure, and when solidarity across class lines may have therefore been at the expense of solidarity across borders etc. I'm not saying that Shute was generally a racist author, and actually I'd say that his novels are celebrations of unflashy human decency and courage.
You may be right there, I'm not going to reread Ruined City as I don't have a copy and it's about my least favourite apart from On the Beach! But it is surprising as Shute is elsewhere positively anti-xenophobic. Would that be xenophilic?
That doesn't include the fun bit though, the pub solving the segregation issue by excluding White US servicemen. Which I'm pretty sure did happen somewhere.
Thanks for a fascinating post. My father was an engineer and a Nevil Shute fan, with the result that I read On the Beach at an impressionable age and have been haunted by it ever since! I also remember No Highway and discussions about planes crashing. My mother, by the way, worked at the RAE during the war.
I know a few people haunted by On the Beach! Maybe one day I'll read it, but I admit while I can take grim non-fiction but with novels I' m usually looking for something that won't bring traumatic sleepless nights!
A very-much-not-socialist author taking on a topic you’d think would make most people sympathetic to socialist policies - he didn’t take the obvious route, did he?
Thank you! I think he had bad experiences dealing with government officials on aircraft projects early in his career (his novel No Highway is about similar). I guess that made him very sceptical about government intervention in the economy, including socialism. Also as big earner I don't think he liked paying tax!
I also think he like individualism - so many of his significant characters are instruments of change through their work rather than through groups or organisations - I’m thinking of The Pied Piper, Trustee From The Tool Room and Jean Paget leading the women in A Town Like Alice. So I guess that’s pretty consistent.
What affected him deeply (according to my Dad an aero engineer just a bit younger) was his work on one of two airships R100 and R101; he was on the 'free enterprise' one but when the government sponsored one crashed and burned that was it all over for airships. (They were filled with hydrogen which is highly flammable.) Town Like Alice explicitly celebrates free enterprise as well as engineers and so do other novels to greater or less. On racism and class prejudice in Ruined City, this is the protagonist but not Shute perhaps? As he was very non racist in The Chequer Board notably. EG the story (based on truth) about segregated Southern regiment stationed in English countryside whose officers explained to the local pub that Black soldiers should not be allowed into the pub used by the Whites - and then met a sign excluding white US soldiers from that pub... Alice too is respectful of Aboriginal Australians and also Malay though understandably hostile to Japanese. 'Landfall' has class issues, working class girl with air force officer, and a bit of gender politics, treated sentimentally but without prejudiced attitudes. Ruined City title I took as derived from 'The Waste Land' but may be wrong. Protagonist goes to goal 3 years doesn't he? Having defrauded investors to revive the shipyard. I think it's a story about overcoming class prejudice and the moral decision he then takes. I owe gratitude to Shute: my Dad in late 90s would read and reread his books when he'd lost the ability to read anything else at all.
Thank you so much for that background about the airships. It sounds a bit like Frank Whipple whose development of the jet engine was, I understand, more obstructed than helped by the British government (and who left Britain for America)? I agree that Shute's books are very much about free enterprise and individualism, and I think that's a big part of their appeal (regardless of whatever politics the reader has).
"I think it's a story about overcoming class prejudice and the moral decision he then takes". Agree with this. However, I do think there is a jarring racist/xenophobic element in Ruined City that I've never noticed in any other Shute novel I've read. I do think it may not be a coincidence that it's written at a time of economic pressure, and when solidarity across class lines may have therefore been at the expense of solidarity across borders etc. I'm not saying that Shute was generally a racist author, and actually I'd say that his novels are celebrations of unflashy human decency and courage.
Off to look up The Waste Land now!
To add: it's wonderful his novels brought such pleasure to your Dad. That is the test and the point of storytelling in my view.
You may be right there, I'm not going to reread Ruined City as I don't have a copy and it's about my least favourite apart from On the Beach! But it is surprising as Shute is elsewhere positively anti-xenophobic. Would that be xenophilic?
Xenophilic - a new word for me, thanks!
I checked and it’s in the dictionary!
Apparently (at least according to Wikipedia), the original confrontation which Shute picked up on for The Chequer Board is 'The Battle of Bamber Bridge', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bamber_Bridge
The tale told locally is sometimes a bit sanitised but it's clear that the locals did sympathise with the Black GIs.
Thanks for that, I'd no idea of this bit of history.
That doesn't include the fun bit though, the pub solving the segregation issue by excluding White US servicemen. Which I'm pretty sure did happen somewhere.
Actually it seems the White US servicemen ban did happen in B Bridge, before the shooting started.
Thanks for a fascinating post. My father was an engineer and a Nevil Shute fan, with the result that I read On the Beach at an impressionable age and have been haunted by it ever since! I also remember No Highway and discussions about planes crashing. My mother, by the way, worked at the RAE during the war.
I know a few people haunted by On the Beach! Maybe one day I'll read it, but I admit while I can take grim non-fiction but with novels I' m usually looking for something that won't bring traumatic sleepless nights!
NS's No Highway came true some years later - problems with metal fatigue with the Comet airliner which caused it to be grounded.
Which is why, when my father flew to New York on a BOAC comet in 1960, there was some talk about air safety that I probably wasn’t meant to overhear!
Fascinating to read this!
Thank you!
Interesting as always!
A very-much-not-socialist author taking on a topic you’d think would make most people sympathetic to socialist policies - he didn’t take the obvious route, did he?
Thank you! I think he had bad experiences dealing with government officials on aircraft projects early in his career (his novel No Highway is about similar). I guess that made him very sceptical about government intervention in the economy, including socialism. Also as big earner I don't think he liked paying tax!
But yes would surely have just been easier to ignore the problems of economic slump ... as so many tried to do.
I also think he like individualism - so many of his significant characters are instruments of change through their work rather than through groups or organisations - I’m thinking of The Pied Piper, Trustee From The Tool Room and Jean Paget leading the women in A Town Like Alice. So I guess that’s pretty consistent.
Definitely! It's individuals who make the difference.