Ruined City and In the Wet by Nevil Shute

Little Bear kitty wanted to help with this post. I have access to the collected works of mid-20th century novelist Nevil Shute. I’ve read many of them, and was surprised to find that both Ruined City and In the West were new to me. An engineer and aviator, Nevil Shute Norway loved writing books set in England, Australia, and occasionally, the future. He is most famous for two of his most dramatic books, On the Beach and A Town Like Alice. My favorite of his novels is Trustee from the Toolroom. The books, in some respects, feel a bit dated, but still make for good reads, and it can be fun to read older books.

Ruined City, also called Kindling, was published in 1938, and is set during 1933-1937. The United Kingdom was just coming out of the Great Depression and unemployment was very high. Henry Warren, a London financier, is unwilling to make even slightly risky loans. His advice on investments is highly respected. Working long hours and traveling throughout Europe for his work, Warren often dines alone at home, served by his butler, as his wife is very social and rarely home in the evening. She meets someone else and they plan to divorce. For his health, Warren goes on a long walking tour and ends up in the north of England after he’s taken ill on the road. Recovering from surgery in the hospital in Sharples, he meets a kind almoner (sort of a social worker) and takes walks through the town, discovering a closed shipyard. Deciding that sometimes the ends do justify the means, he makes a slightly shady deal in a fictional Balkan country to help reopen the shipyard, which just might revitalize the town. Warren makes the deal knowing it may come at a high personal cost. A very satisfying read.

In the Wet was published in 1953. This is one of Nevil Shute’s speculative novels, in which he wonders about possible futures. The beginning of the book is set in Queensland, Australia in the early 1950s, but most of the book is set in the early 1980s. It’s fascinating to look back at the 1980s to see how the author’s ideas of the future did or did not resemble our timeline. Wing Commander David Anderson, one-quarter Aborigine, is stunned to be assigned to the Queen’s Flight. In this version of the 1980s, Canada and Australia are more prosperous than Great Britain and have commissioned two very modern airplanes for the Queen that travel at very high altitudes and have a long range. This will enable Queen Elizabeth or her two children, Charles and Anne, to reach anywhere in the Commonwealth in only a couple of days.

David falls for one of the Queen’s secretaries, Rosemary, and they share a love of sailing. He wants to make his home near Canberra, Australia while life in London and Oxford is all Rosemary has known. There is a government crisis that result in several long flights for David. David’s unfortunate nickname and a very cliched Asian character in the 1950s Australian portion of the book make parts of this book feel dated, but it’s a remarkable, thought-provoking story.

Brenda