Trustee from the Toolroom [Hardcover]

Nevil Shute (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Heinemann (1968)
• ASIN: B000J2M40S
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,528,300 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

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A quietly courageous adventure, March 15, 2002

By 

Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trustee from the Toolroom (Hardcover)

I read this one when it was printed before ISBNs came into being. Before I left London & it has always been my favorite Nevil Shute story.

In this age of in-your-face language & novels saturated with every evil event a human's mind can plausibly conjure up, this master storyteller's quiet & lean prose about real, ordinary people & their choices, entices you into one man's little life of miniature models, hardworking wives & honoring one's vows.

From an unpeturbed basement workshop to the paradise of the broad Pacific ocean, a middle-aged man, more comfotable at his workbench than jetting across the world, takes on a mission to retrieve a treasure he himself hid in the ballast of his sister & brother-in-law's wrecked sail boat.

For the sake of his niece, he leaves the safety of his suburban routine to travel far & wide to bring her inheritance back.

A deeply satisfying & redemptive read, of a time long ago, when things were a lot more simple & simple honor was a lot more evident.

Warms your heart, soothes your soul & tells a good story as well!

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars To be re-read, May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Trustee from the Toolroom (Hardcover)

The last line of this novel tells it all about the protagonist, Keith Stewart: "He was ...supremely happy". Keith was happy because he forsook more renumerative possibilities to do what he wanted to do most; design and write in the arcane field of "miniature mechanics" or model engineering, working out of a machine shop in his basement. In addition he is also a very moral and responsible human being.

In typical Nevil Shute fashion, the book's plot consists of a wonderful, almost believable adventure during which Keith travels to the South Pacific and Washington State to save an inheritance, but it is really a portrait of Keith and how the goodness of ordinary people, personified by the warmly drawn out characters, will conquer all adversity without resorting to too much guile. Besides Keith there is his wife Katie, their niece Janice, errant boat bum Jim Donnelly as well as a kind-hearted lumber magnate, Sol Hirzhorn, and his family. All are good people and the story ends well.

If all this sounds trite, I suppose it is in these cynical times, but that does not prevent "Trustee" from being a marvelous read. I have re-read it many times and, perhaps more importantly, have learned that model engineers like Keith and the magazine he wrote for really exist. Largely as a result of reading this book, I have taken up the hobby myself, including my very own basement workshop, and work on projects taken from magazines similar to the fictitious one Keith wrote for. Reason enough to love a work of fiction.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful tale of a common man doing extraordinary things., July 7, 2002

By 

Gary M. Greenbaum (Fairfax, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trustee from the Toolroom (Hardcover)

Keith Stewart lives quietly in suburban London, working free-lance for a model mechanic magazine. His sister and brother in law have him hide a jewel box aboard their sailboat just before they emigrate to Vancouver. But when the ship goes down in the South Pacific with them both, Keith must not only raise their young daughter, but must seek to retrieve the jewel box from the wreck.

Keith has never before left Britain, and is very much a fish out of water. But there's not that much suspense to this story, as he finds that many people who have read of his work are delighted to help him along.

All the same, it isn't an easy trip for Keith, but it is a far easier one for the reader, with a fine read and memorable characters.