Stephen Morris (including Pilotage) [Paperback]

Nevil Shute (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

These two linked novels have flying as a shared theme. In Stephen Morris we see the eponymous hero leaving Oxford University unable to marry his girl because of a lack of prospects. He starts as a mechanic and a pilot at a friend’s aerodrome business. In Pilotage, Peter Dennison is to start as a junior partner at a firm in China. The woman he wishes to marry can’t accept his proposal if it means going to live in Hong Kong. Dennison has to find a way to make money and marry.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An example of trim, professional storytelling with technical know-how (splendid accounts of flying, driving by night, and sailing) giving extra thrust to the narrative Observer The English novel's only down-to-earth romantic... there is a quality of golden light that hangs over his books. That comes, I think, from his sense of order and from his own vast, undemonstrative solicitude Guardian --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: 276 pages
• Publisher: House of Stratus (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842322974
• ISBN-13: 978-1842322970
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,231,292 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

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable First Novel and a Good History as Well, January 4, 2004

By 

Dr. Hypersonic (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stephen Morris (including Pilotage) (Paperback)

STEPHEN MORRIS (inc. PILOTAGE) is both a compelling work of fiction and a very fine and thinly disguished memoir/history of the early days of British aviation immediately after the First World War. It is so good, in fact, that one wonders why he chose not to publish it: it did not appear until after his death. In its graceful and arresting writing, it anticipates his later aviation-theme novels, and in its glimpse of the proto-British aircraft industry, it calls to mind his autobiography SLIDE RULE. Shute, of course, made his living as a professional aeronautical engineer and stress calculator (as Nevil S. Norway), working for de Havilland on early biplane transport development, then the Vickers concern during the great days of British airship development, and then as a founder of the Airspeed company, a firm noted for the production of small, very high quality executive aircraft and trainers. As a novel, STEPHEN MORRIS and PILOTAGE (the two works are linked) anticipate those great novels of Saint-Exupery, SOUTHERN MAIL and NIGHT FLIGHT. As well, they call to mind Ernest Gann's best fiction, particularly his book BLAZE OF NOON. Shute understands the world of the airman (he was an accomplished light aircraft pilot), and, given his participation in the industry at the time, naturally understands the course of the field as well. This, too, echoes Saint-Ex and Gann. I would recommend that readers read all of these works to gain their own perspective on Shute, Saint-Ex, and Gann, as novelist-airmen and (in the case of Shute) as a designer and entrepreneur as well. In sum, STEPHEN MORRIS and PILOTAGE need to be read far more widely than they have been, and considered as major contributions to the early popular understanding of flight.