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2 y separately published work icon Dead Centre Christopher Wood , London : Michael Joseph , 1980 Z201642 1980 single work novel crime mystery thriller
11 181 y separately published work icon A Fringe of Leaves Patrick White , London : Jonathan Cape , 1976 Z476217 1976 single work novel (taught in 8 units)

"Set in Australia in the 1840s, A FRINGE OF LEAVES combines dramatic action with a finely distilled moral vision. Returning home to England from Van Diemen's land, the Bristol Maid is shipwrecked on the Queensland coast and Mrs Roxburgh is taken prisoner by a tribe of aborigines, along with the rest of the passengers and crew. In the course of her escape, she is torn by conflicting loyalties - to her dead husband, to her rescuer, to her own and to her adoptive class."

Source: Goodreads
3 y separately published work icon Boomerang Lady Joy Packer , London : Eyre Methuen , 1972 Z1326579 1972 single work novel

'After the birth of her first child Jo van der Walt, the young wife of a South African sheep farmer, discovers she is going deaf. Its effects on her life, in particular on her relationship with her husband Kobie, are serious. But when, through the help of Rob Stirling, an Australian doctor, a 'miracle' cure is achieved it comes back like a boomerang into the lives of Jo, Kobie and Rob. The stage is set for an explosive situation.'

Source: Bibliophile Bookbase
12 3 y separately published work icon Trustee from the Toolroom Nevil Shute , London : Heinemann , 1960 Z433730 1960 single work novel

'Keith Stewart is a quiet and unassuming man called upon to undertake an extraordinary task. A skilled maker of miniature working models, he lives a modest life devoted to his hobby. But when his sister and her wealthy husband die in a shipwreck on a coral reef in the Pacific—while trying to smuggle out of England their entire fortune in diamonds hidden in the keel of their yacht—Keith becomes trustee for his orphaned niece. To save her from destitution he must travel halfway around the world and risk a long voyage in a small boat in inhospitable waters to recover her inheritance. In the course of his adventure-filled quest, a colorful and international cast of characters mobilize to help him, and this humble man discovers he has more friends and admirers than he could have dared to imagine.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Vintage International ed.).
14 2 y separately published work icon The Rainbow and the Rose Nevil Shute , London : Heinemann , 1958 Z43628 1958 single work novel

'When seasoned pilot Johnny Pascoe tries to rescue a sick girl from the Tasmanian outback, his plane crashes and leaves him stranded and dangerously injured. Ronnie Clarke, who was trained by Pascoe, attempts to fly a doctor in to help, but rough weather makes his mission more difficult than he imagined. As he waits overnight at Pascoe’s house for a chance to try again the next day, Clarke revisits the past of this unusual man—and reveals the shocking and tragic secrets that have influenced his life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Vintage International ed.).
30 50 y separately published work icon On the Beach Nevil Shute , Melbourne : Heinemann , 1957 Z125153 1957 single work novel science fiction (taught in 3 units)
— Appears in: Krysolov. Na Berugu 1991;

'After the war is over, a radioactive cloud begins to sweep southwards on the winds, gradually poisoning everything in its path. An American submarine captain is among the survivors left sheltering in Australia, preparing with the locals for the inevitable. Despite his memories of his wife, he becomes close to a young woman struggling to accept the harsh realities of their situation. Then a faint Morse code signal is picked up, transmitting from the United States and the submarine must set sail through the bleak ocean to search for signs of life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (2009 Vintage ed.).
25 15 y separately published work icon A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute , London : Heinemann , 1950 Z564787 1950 single work novel

'Nevil Shute’s most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback.

'Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. But it turns out that they have a gift for her as well: the news that the young Australian soldier, Joe Harmon, who had risked his life to help the women, had miraculously survived. Jean’s search for Joe leads her to a desolate Australian outpost called Willstown, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals.' (Publication summary)
11 4 y separately published work icon Beyond the Black Stump Nevil Shute , Melbourne : Heinemann , 1956 Z275102 1956 single work novel Set on a station in the North West of Western Australia, in Perth and in the USA. It is a curious patchwork of fiction, distortion, half-truth and social criticism ... And the honest history graduate from the University of Western Australia would have to agree that Mr Shute would do well to enrol as a student in the Department of History if he is not to perpetrate further travesties of the truth. (F. K. Crowley, Westerly No. 3 1956, pp41-3.)
6 6 y separately published work icon In the Wet Nevil Shute , Melbourne : Heinemann , 1953 Z27056 1953 single work novel science fiction 'It is the rainy season. Drunk and delirious, an old man lies dying in the Queensland bush. In his opium-hazed last hours, a priest finds his deserted shack and listens to his last words. Half-awake and half-dreaming the old man tells the story of an adventure set decades in the future, in a very different world . . .'. Source: bookseller's website.
13 2 y separately published work icon The Far Country Nevil Shute , Melbourne : Heinemann , 1952 Z522246 1952 single work novel

'When a young Englishwoman named Jennifer Morton leaves London to visit relatives on their sheep ranch in the Australian outback, she falls in love both with the gloriously beautiful country and with Carl, a Czech refugee who was a doctor in his own land and now works as a lumberjack. They are brought together through dramatic encounters and strange twists of fate, but their relationship hangs in the balance when Jennifer is called back to England.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Vintage International ed.).
9 1 y separately published work icon No Highway Nevil Shute , London : Heinemann , 1948 Z416334 1948 single work novel

'Theodore Honey is a shy, inconspicous aircraft engineer whose eccentric interests in quantum mechanics and spiritualism are frowned upon in aviation circles. But when a passenger plane crashes in unexplained circumstances, Honey must convince his superiors that his unorthodox theories are correct before more lives are lost.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (2011 Vintage ed.).
13 1 y separately published work icon The Chequer Board Nevil Shute , London : Heinemann , 1947 Z130539 1947 single work novel
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