The Chequer Board [Paperback]

Nevil Shute (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

John Turner, who has had a head injury in an air crash, is told that he has only a year to live. He decides to spend his last months making the journey to Rangoon, Burma, in a flying boat to rescue a friend who has gone native.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Not only a brilliantly fluent storyteller but also an ironic commentator on the world scene Harpers & Queen Shute was a brilliant storyteller and a terrific example for any writer Daily Express As a novelist, Nevil Shute goes from strength to strength, experimenting, drawing out life as he sees it, and setting it before us in ordered pattern...The Chequer Board is a notable novel Punch Blessed with an unaffected poplar touch, Shute has come close to the sentiment of his readers not only through a very genuine quality of sympathy but also through a singular ease and liveliness of topical invention...he is a storyteller of an uncommonly veracious stamp, whose performance is more remarkable that his quiet and refreshing modest airs might suggest Times Literary Supplement A happy knack endows this story with a character who is slightly greater than life-size. It proves once again how the ordinary, the average, the season-ticket holder sitting next to you, can still, in the hands of an expert, furnish the very stuff of literature Daily Express --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Nevil Shute Norway was born in London and worked as an aeronautical engineer at Vickers before setting up his own airship company. Worried that his reputation as a fiction writer would damage his engineering career, he wrote without using his surname. He served in both world wars and was a commander in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in World War II, working on secret projects. After the war he became a full time author completing a fictionalised account of his war time experience in 'Most Secret'. Moving to Australia in 1949 he based seven of his novels against that background including his most successful title On The Beach. This was subsequently a hugely successful film starring Gregory Peck, Antony Perkins and Ava Gardner and became arguably the major after the bomb movie of all time. Shute became one of the top selling authors of the 50s and 60s with wide appeal to a broad international market attracted by strong story lines which were always meticulously researched..

Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: House of Stratus Ltd (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842322486
• ISBN-13: 978-1842322482
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,057,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nevil Shute Norway was born in 1899 in Ealing, London. He studied Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. Following his childhood passion, he entered the fledgling aircraft industry as an aeronautical engineer working to develop airships and, later, airplanes. In his spare time he began writing and he published his first novel, Marazan, in 1926, using the name Nevil Shute to protect his engineering career. In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they had two daughters. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons. After the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived until his death in 1960. His most celebrated novels include Pied Piper (1942), A Town Like Alice (1950), and On the Beach (1957).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of Nevil Shute's best, September 19, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Chequer Board (Hardcover)

Nevil Shute is best known for "On the Beach," his novelabout nuclear war, and, more recently, "A Town Like Alice,"which was made into a TV miniseries. At least half a dozen of his other novels are equally wonderful. My paperback copy of "The Chequer Board" is worn out from reading, rereading, and lending, and it is time for me to replace it with a hardback. His account of relations between black American soldiers and the English during World War II is particularly touching, and is a bit of history that was unfamiliar to me.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Chequer Board, November 10, 2002

By 

Tami Brandt (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chequer Board

What would you do if you had but one more year to live? Battle-wounded Capt. John Turner decided to use his year seaching out three buddies what had been in the military hospital with him -- each in a terrible jam -- and perhaps give them a helping hand. You'll meet snobbish Phil Morgan, the pilot who hated foreigners, yet deserted his wife to live with a Burmese maiden; Duggie Brent, a young commando, who had to unlearn the horrible teachings that made him an unintentional killer; and Dave Lasurier, the shy Negro G. I. who got into bad trouble -- and found his way out with the help of an understanding woman. John Turner's search for these three takes him to the far corners of the earth and into one strange experience after another until, in the end, he has changed from a petty opportunist into a man with truly great understanding, a man without fear of death. Only the author of PIED PIPER and PASTORAL could have written this powerful and touching novel, a story the critics have recommended "heartily and without reservation!" Don't miss it.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking & Beautifully Written, January 31, 2000

By 

Stephen Faulkner (U.S,A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Chequer Board (Hardcover)

Nevil Shute's Chequer Board is just what it's title indicates: a checkerboard of characters, places and lives. All are sought out by one man who knew them all only briefly and now, that he is close to death, he wants to "see how they are doing." The novel came out in the late 1940's and refers back to World War II and how four men who survived the crashing of a plane returning from North Africa get on with their lives. Mr. Shute's writing is crisp and lively, his characters come off as very real and each of them touches the reader in his own special way. If you can ever find it, definitely pick up this book and let Nevil Shute take you on a wonderful ride tha you won't soon forget.