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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Nevil Shute
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(pen name of Nevil Shute Norway, 1899–1960)
Author whose professional background enabled him to write gripping novels about people confronting technological or scientific disaster. He worked as a designer in the aeronautic industry, notably on the successful airship R-100 (see *R-101). His specialist knowledge lay behind the drama of No Highway (1948), in which a desperate engineer struggles to persuade his superiors that he has identified metal fatigue in an airliner (this was some years before the *Comet was taken out of service for that very reason). From 1950 Shute lived in Australia; On the Beach (1957) is set in a Melbourne suburb, with people struggling to go about their everyday lives among nuclear fall-out from World War III.
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