Product Description
John Pascoe, a retired military flyer and commercial pilot, has crashed on a remote Tasmania mountain while attempting a rescue. Another pilot and friend, Ronnie Clark, volunteers to rescue the injured flyer. Through strange dreams that appear to Clark we glimpse Pascoe's past family life with its secrets. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A lovely, somber story of aviation
This novel has a somber tone to it as it tells the life of a pioneer aviator. Much of the story is told in dream sequences as the lead character, an Australian airline pilot, tries to fly a mercy mission to evacuate or deliver a doctor to treat his old friend who has crashed on a similar mercy mission. Johnny Pascoe was a World War I fighter pilot and, after the war, works as a flying instructor for a small flying club in England. During the war, he marries a beautiful girl and she has a child while he is off at war. When he comes back, she has an offer to go to Hollywood as an actress and she divorces him taking their daughter to America. While working as a flying instructor, he meets another beautiful woman who is married to a wealthy man who is confined to a mental hospital. She learns to fly and they slowly fall in love. Eventually, they decide to marry if she can convince her husband to divorce her. She become pregnant but the husband balks at the divorce and she goes to France to have the baby. Eventually, she becomes distraught at the stalemate with the husband who has escaped from the mental hospital and her inability to reconcile the circumstances with her sense of duty. She crashes her plane committing suicide.

Johnny Pascoe then leaves for India and becomes an airline pilot for the next 30 years. At the time of the story, he is nearing retirement and he meets a stewardess who has become his senior stewardess on his regular flight. They become quite close and eventually he learns a shocking secret. The story is somber but like several others of Shute's novels is a pleasure to read. It resembles "In the Wet" in its dream sequences in which the story is told. It resembles "Requiem for a Wren" in the somber tone of the story. There is similarity to "Pastoral" in the flying sequences. It is an outstanding example of Shute at his best.

The Rainbow and the Rose
Wonderful to read this book again. Read it as a late teen and found much more meat in it this time. Nevil Shute rocks!!!
Amazon is amazing, they have so many of my old favorites available.

The Rainbow and the Rose; Revisited
I read The Rainbow and The Rose , along with most of Nevil Shute's novels, many years ago. Interestingly, I've never read On The Beach. I have, however, recently begun buying copies of Shute's novels for rereading. I wish to see if my sixty year old personna interprets them differently than I did as an eighteen year old.
At the time I first read The Rainbow and The Rose, I thought it as good as A Town Like Alice. I could not wait for Ron Clarke to become airborne once again, as he made his way across Australia, so that he would continue to experience the visions that were some sort of gift to help him sort out his feelings toward the woman he once loved and the man who'd won her heart so many years ago.
I thought back then, and I think today that the book would make a wonderful movie, if done correctly and with the right people.
I urge anyone with even a passing interest in Shute's work to read The Rainbow and The Rose.

Lovely
I was going to give this book four stars until I reached the end and it moved me almost to tears, hence 5 stars. Live many of Shute's books the feelings he invokes are beautiful and powerful, all coming from rather controlled, unemotional characters. "The Rainbow and the Rose" is about lives twined and brought around in a full-circle effect. There are no surprises in the plot, but there doesn't need to be. It works even as you know what's coming. There is a great deal of detail on flying and airplanes that may or may not appeal to you--I enjoyed it. Shute writes those sorts of technical details very smoothly so they integrate into the characters' traits. Not Shute's best novel, but decidedly worth reading.

Rainbow and the Rose
Totally enjoyed this book as I have many others by Neville Shute - he truly can tell a story with wonderful detail and intrigue that keeps the pages turning! ... Read more

Product Description
 Theodore Honey is a shy, inconspicuous engineer whose eccentric interests are frowned upon in aviation circles. When a passenger plane crashes in Newfoundland under unexplained circumstances, Honey is determined to prove his unorthodox theory about what went wrong to his superiors, before more lives are lost. But while flying to the crash scene to investigate, Honey discovers to his horror that he is on board one of the defective planes and that he and his fellow passengers, including a friendly young stewardess and an aging movie actress, are in imminent peril. ... Read more

Product Description
When a young Englishwoman named Jennifer Morton leaves London to visit relatives on their sheep ranch in the Australian outback, she falls in love both with the gloriously beautiful country and with Carl, a Czech refugee who was a doctor in his own land and now works as a lumberjack. They are brought together through dramatic encounters and strange twists of fate, but their relationship hangs in the balance when Jennifer is called back to England. ... Read more

Product Description
Henry Warren, director of an English banking house, decides to buy and reopen a deserted shipyard in order to help a depressed city, boost the tradition of British shipbuilding, and have some fun. He works hard at making a go of the business, and has faith in his goals, but cuts a few legal corners to help the company and continue to provide work for his employees. This gets him into trouble with the law.Variant title is Ruined City ... Read more

Product Description
Henry Warren ends up in a hospital in a Northern town ruined by the closure of its shipyard. Moved by the fate of the town’s inhabitants, Warren risks his fortune and reputation to save the shipyard and restore the town. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A book that time passed by
...Good use of a rainy day, but the themes of the book are terribly dated. The loose woman with a heart of gold, the unscrupulous card sharp with a heart of gold, and the protagonist, a stock fraudster with a heart of gold. (The demimondaine is of course much more interesting than the official heroine.) On the other hand, it was worth the (low) price for two other great period lines. After the hero returns to the ruined city whose once-idle industry is revived, he glories in the air pollution! It was too clean before! And it's great news when the hero, incarcerated, reduces stress and gains lots of weight!

Warning BTW for the politically correct: no f-word, no s-word, but the n-word.... Times do change.

Shute tackles economic depression
Synopsis: Henry Warren, wealthy London merchant banker, finds himself incognito in the hospital of a depressed northern English town.During his convalescence, he is confronted with the unhappy state of the town sincethe local shipyard, its sole industry, closed down five years before. Returning to London, he decides to start up the shipyard again in order torevitalize the town; but the problem is finding the first customer.He isforced to resort to some rather shady deals which could land him in prisonif discovered.

I am of two minds about this novel.On the one hand, it'sclassic Shute -- the quiet, competent hero who succeeds through convictionand kindness to others, with the mandatory love story and Shute'scharacteristic heartwarming plot, enlivened by the ancient "kingmasquerading as beggar" device.

On the other hand, the central plotis a case of the end justifying the means, which I find rather disturbing;and the novel seems to glorify socialism (not without a dig or two atcommunism) -- though of course this was written in 1938, when socialismseemed a more viable solution.The novel grapples with one of thefundamental economic problems facing our society -- what to do with peoplewhose skills are superseded by changing circumstances -- and though theanswer Shute propounds does not seem workable to me, at least he makes youthink about the issue.

On the whole, this is definitely worth reading,especially if your only experience of Shute is "On the Beach". But you may want to try another of his novels first -- "A Town likeAlice", "No Highway", "Trustee from the Toolroom",or "The Chequer Board". ... Read more

Product Description
A young English woman leaves her aging parents to visit friends living in the Australian outback. She falls in love, both with the country and with Carl. Brought together through dramatic encounters and strange twists of fate, their relationship hangs in the balance when she is called back to England. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

great story
I always enjoy returning to this book. Nevil Shute makes you deeply interested in his characters, who are such real people they could be living next door. His protagonists are usually simple, clever, thoughtful people.

Another Shute gem
I read On the Beach and Town Like Alice decades ago. Loved them but never bothered to look for more of his work.What a pity! I happened upon this old hardback copy recently in a thrift store, and what a find! From the first few pages I was captured by his descriptions and by his characters. He sometimes got a bit repetitious, but I soon became so enamored by his story that I really didn't care.I also liked the down to earth writing; the kind that is readable without being simple, the kind that doesn't distract from the plot but rather carries it along.Its an old fashion love story, about connecting with people and a land.Wonderfully done.

Uplifitng & Enthralling!
I found this book on the shelf at my local libary.By the cover, it had nothing to recommend it--beat up, dull blue, writing on the binding flaking off.The only reason I checked it out was because it was by Nevil Shute, one of my favorite authors.It sat on my pile of "to read" for six weeks before I picked it up in a moment of boredom & started reading.My boredom was gone immediately and I spent the rest of the day in post WWII Australia with the two main characters--Jennifer, a young woman who is visiting Australia compliments of a small legacy left to her by her grandmother, and Carl Zlinter, a Czechoslovakian emmigrant planning to make a life in Australia after he has completed his required labor contract.Wow, what a great book!The plot twists kept me off balance, the characters were interesting & the type of people you'd like to have living next door to you, there was enough action to keep you interested but not detract from the story, there was a bit of a mystery and the end was what you'd hoped for the entire time without expecting it to happen because of another exciting plot twist.I would give this book six stars out of five.I plan to visit my library soon to look for some more surprises like this one!

Nevil Shute is excellent in this story, beyond words!
Jennifer Morton moves to London, temporarily, to take care of her ailing grandmother, who, before her death, speaks of times, now gone, when life was so much better in England, as though she recognizes the dissolving of a great culture, which her granddaughter will never know.
In her last day of life, she passes on the Jennifer a timely gift of money, received from her distant niece in Australia, and with it expresses her wish for Jennifer to go soon, to seek a better and new life in the opportunities offered in "The Far Country."Living up to her grandmother's words, she follows her adventuresome spirit and sails to the other side of the world for this new discovery.
Warmly received by her niece at the sheep station, she experiences the abundance of life in Queensland, where she feels at home - immediately - and can now clearly compare the differences between the continents. The new country brings refreshing contrast compared to the dreariness of her post-war nation, so plagued by needless government regulations and restrictions on all of life's commodities, even food.
Freedom is what she experiences for the first time in her life and, with it, can fully understand her grandmother's wish for her to seek it. While there, she also notices hardships, endured by others who seek alternative ways to reach this very same freedom. They are the lumberjacks - the refugees from around the globe - who have accepted two-year forestry commitments to buy into the opportunities ahead. Australia attracts them and, in return for their two years of hardship, they can gain their new beginning in their new land.
So it is with Carl Zlintner, a Chechoslovakian doctor, a World War II refugee, who has nine months to go before his own two years are finalized. He has no money and is ready to pursue life as a lumberjack in his future. However, hidden in the forest, he stumbles across the grave of a man, now dead for many years... a man with a recognizable name.
How Jennifer Morton and pursuit to learn more about this dead man bring new life to the doctor, is a moving and powerful story of willingness to endure, readiness to sacrifice and determination to reach the goals ahead.
It's a story about life and about love, wonderful and inspiring, so totally Nevil Shute!

Classic Shute, e.g., magnificent read!
What a storyteller!Shute didn't live too long.I'm so glad he found time to write these human adventures along with all the other things he did.I did not realize until I read this book how bad things were in Great Britain after WWII.Makes me want to go to Australia (in the early 1950's). One of Shute's strengths is character description and development.I'm so glad I found my own copy of this book at Amazon!It was getting difficult to locate copies at the library.Why was this great story never filmed? This has to be as good as the author's A Town Like Alice and No Highway. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Onlyof historical interest
I like Shute, and I am a frequent visitor to Queensland, but this novel and its characters seemed dated and unsatisfying.It was a 1952 "thought experiment" about a future for Queen Elizabeth and Australia that would bring us up to the present.There is a political agenda; this is less a "yarn" than what Shute is known for.

Another Dream as 'Deus Ex-Machina'?
Nevil Shute was a sturdily competent author. His plots are as well constructed as his planes probably were. Solid, orthodox in design and execution, no unnecessary frills - the embodiment of the stiff upper lip of the Englishman. This is no exception as it artfully tells a future tale of an England riven by an envy-based Socialism (that its author had recently escaped from)that is rapidly destroying those few institutions remaining. It has a solid emotional connection to present-day 'utopian' Australia (as wonderfully observed from the point of view of one who lived there as, say, Orwell's 'Burmese Days').

Hmmm...author wishes to tell of past or future and make politicised point therefrom. Problem - how to do this without breaking the emotional connection to the narrative of the present? Solution - make a character have a 'dream' of some kind.

I rolled my eyes - this device was becoming hackneyed (cf.'An Old Captivity', 'The Rainbow & The Rose' etc.) and one might have expected Shute to be a little more inventive with his literary devices. Nevertheless, it works and functions adequately as a means of establishing and maintaining a fluid connection between the two.

Well done, sir!

A Rainstorm of Character and Idea
This book was written in 1952, just after Queen Elizabeth took the throne, and is an odd look at what Nevil thought would happen to the British Commonwealth, and specifically to the concept of Royalty, under the influence of post-WWII economic and political pressures, over a period of 30 years from the time of the book's writing. As is typical for Nevil, the book has no bad guys, no sharp dramatic tension, but rather some fine character portraits, a properly told love story, and some very exacting insights into social and political structures.

The book is actually told in two separate pieces. One is a framing story of an elderly Church of England pastor newly assigned to a rather remote area of the Australian outback and his efforts to minister to a flock that is literally spread over an area larger than many states. Nevil's description of the area and people in this area both during the dry season and 'in the wet' is startlingly full of life, a fine portrait that does much to illustrate some of Nevil's social commentary, which creeps in almost from the side, rarely directly presented. But from this everyday world, we move to a totally different one as our priest, suffering from malaria induced fevers and hallucinations, is forced by circumstance to minister to an old, dying drunkard, Stevie. In trying to learn about Stevie's past, we enter the world of the future, as Stevie's half-incoherent words combine with the priest's inner hallucinations to form the story of David Anderson, an Australian pilot chosen to fly the personal aircraft of the Queen.

This vision of the future shows an England of near total socialism, sadly depopulated by emigration to other Commonwealth countries, poorly ruled and near bankrupt, questioning the value of supporting the royal family. Opposing this are the pictures of Canada and Australia as vibrant, growing economies, and where one of the key differences in government is the idea of individuals being able to earn more than the basic one vote, available to everyone, by education, military service, public service, travel, and by special dispensation (i.e. 'The Queen's Favor). Supposedly this form of enfranchisement has led to better, more efficient government - whether it really would is an obvious topic for debate.

What is intriguing about this is just where Nevil got events right and where his vision diverged from what really happened. Little things like his prediction that Christmas Island would be turned over to Australian governance in 1961 (actual was 1958) and his portrait of a middle-aged Queen Elizabeth (startlingly accurate) and major things like his prediction of England's economic sharp decline and turn towards socialism show just how in tune with the times Nevil was.At the same time, his predictions on technology were sadly off the mark, the 'security' procedures surrounding the Queen are almost laughably inadequate when seen from today's viewpoint, and he took the problems of England too far, not foreseeing its eventual recovery from losing its empire.

Lying atop all of this is a finely told love story between David and Rosemary, a secretary to the Queen. Nevil's characterization is always very strong, and his ability to show a slowly developing attraction is highly realistic and satisfying. And just under the surface is some commentary on issues of race, as David is one-quarter abo, and commonly goes by his nickname of 'Nigger'. Nevil is clearly pointing out the invalidity of judging people by race, and by extension he makes the point that all 'class' distinctions are artificial and, in the long run, detrimental. In presenting this point, he shows some of the treatment of the 'servant' class in ways that may offend some modern sensibilities, but his portrayal is very accurate for the times.

The last portion of the book gets into a metaphysics where all religions have a validity and circles back to the book's starting point, providing much food for thought well beyond the parameters of his envisioned future.

Each of the above items adds to the total of this very strong book, a book that has been sadly neglected and out of print for a long time. It is very encouraging to see most of Nevil's works being brought back into print in the last couple of years, as almost all of his works are deserving of a read, this one especially so.

Fine tale of a future logical in 1952, now somewhat dated
As a dying man drifts towards death in the Australian Outback (it takes place in the rainy season, thus, "In the Wet."), he tells an odd tale to a Church of England clergyman, of a pilot in 1980's Britain (the novel, written in 1952, is set in 1952) The story: David Anderson, a quarter-Aboriginal Australian pilot, is selected to fly for Queen Elizabeth, in a world where a sizable portion of the British people has emigrated, primarily to Canada and Australia. The remaining British have become "red",....

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the novel is the "multiple vote", which, when it was mentioned at the last SF convention I attended, immediately provoked a half-hour debate. Democracy has been modified, leading to the possibility of earning additional votes in elections...

OK, so Shute didn't forsee the rise of republicanism in Australia and the Parti Quebecois in Canada. And television is mentioned exactly once, there's no satellite transmissions, and a lot of other similar difficulties. All the same, Shute provides an interesting political novel/love story for us.

I withhold a fifth star on this one because I don't find the character of David Anderson believable. This guy's supposed to be a quarter-Abo born in a ditch who came up through the ranks. He talks like an Oxford grad, and knows a fair number of polysyllables. Not only this, the quarter-Abo, discussing how the Queen should allocate her time if all was fair, discusses the proportion based on the overall population of the Commonwealth, and based on the white (!) population. Shute should have avoided these obvious howlers.

Strange Yet Compelling
Nevil Shute has the most emotionally compelling writing styles I've ever encountered. "In the Wet" is a odd and lovely example of this. Without ever being maudling, in a quiet, understated way Shute weaves a beautiful combination of feeling and character.

"In the Wet" takes place in the Australian Outback. One can feel the heat, the dust, then the rain and the mud, as well as vividly seeing and being part of the scenery. The story is that of a Church of England parson well past his prime running a church in a very remote and widespread area. He's a practical man, acknowledging that "wrong isn't always wrong" in the Outback. He encounters a dying man who takes him on a trip through reincarnation, telling the tale of the life the man will live his next time around.

As science fiction the book is severely outdated, yet--I've found this works well with the bomb classics like Shute's "On the Beach"--if you read it more as alternate history rather than a look to the future (the 'future' is the 1970s in this case) you'll be able to enjoy the wonderful writing, well-rounded characters, and the solidly crafted plot. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent read.USA title for "A Town Like Alice."
"The Legacy" is the American publication title for "A Town Like Alice."This love story takes place during and after WWII, and is set in England, Malaysia, and Australia.The story is told via aninteresting use of "flashbacks." The idea for the story wasderived, in part, from a true incident involving Dutch women who were takenprisoner by the Japanese.There have been at least two movie versions madeof this book.We favor the MasterPiece Theater version starring BryanBrown. ... Read more

Product Description
One rainy night Peter Moran is driving across the Sussex countryside. When he stops to give a lift to a bedraggled pedestrian he is amazed to discover an old wartime comrade from the Royal Flying Corps. Moran's loyalty is tested as he agrees to help his friend, even though he has acted treasonably. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent
Any Nevil Shute book is a worthy read.And re-read.And re-re-read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nevil Shute Rediscovered
My wife reads to me each day. We buy most of our books from Amazon.com. This was the first 3 in 1 book we had seen. It was inexpensive and two of the novels were absolutely outstanding. "A Town Like Alice" and "On The Beach" were really spellbinding. "The Far Country" was not worth our read. However, getting two spellbinding novels for this price was really nice. Nevil Shute can really tell a story. We are both retired and lived through the cold war years. The threat of nuclear war was always present in our lives. This made "On The Beach" so real for us. Most people did not know that both sides had installed cobalt shells on their warheads. I worked for Naval intelligence and actually saw the shells being made and installed. I fully realized the implications. A war would mean the end of mammalian life on earth.

I can only hope that the cobalt has been removed from those warheads now, but I am not optimistic.

... Read more

Product Description
When Henry Warren, director of an English bank, lands by chance in a hospital in a bleak Northern town that has been ruined by the closure of its shipyard, he discovers nothing less than a new purpose for his life. Moved by the fate of the town’s inhabitants, Warren risks his fortune and reputation to save the shipyard and restore the town to its former prosperity. In seeking to change the fate of the town, he radically changes his own. ... Read more

Product Description
One man's thrulling rescue of seven abandoned children during the Nazi invasion of France in the fateful summer of 1940 is not only Shute at his most exciting it also 'warms and impresses the reader as only a story of courage and goodness can warm' ... Read more

Product Description
After pilot Philip Stenning is involved in a near-fatal plane crash, he feels he owes a debt of gratitude to the man who rescued him. However, his mysterious savior turns out to be an escaped convict and Stenning’s determination to help this man leads him into a tense and dramatic adventure of intrigue, drug-running, and murder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

For Shute completists only
I was fortunate enough to find a copy of this in my library.Had I spent $50 on it, I might have cried.This is not a novel, but a screenplay that Shute wrote to flesh out the Scandinavian backstory of his novel "An Old Captivity".It's impossible to say how it may have fared had it been filmed, but on paper it comes across as one of his weaker attempts. If you've read "An Old Captivity" there really is no reason to read this. If you have yet to read "An Old Captivity", you should defintely seek it out as Shute never wrote another novel like it.

Wonderful Storyteller
In his usual form, Shute spins another fable of love and life facing the not inconsiderable challenges human systems try to impose on us.While the young Norse couple shed the worries of a "more civilized" world to disappear into the bush, the young schoolteacher was not so lucky.

Years ago, I learned there are no dull subjects, only dull teachers.Shute's character bridles but bends to the system, one hopes only momentarily.And that's part of the magic of most Shute books -- there is often that unspoken hope, and perhaps that's enough. ... Read more