A Novel Approach

One of the many pleasures of Philip Hensher’s new A History of the Novel in Britain is his advocacy for Nevil Shute, a writer who enjoyed success in the middle decades of the 20th Century but has been neglected ever since.

Shute was a supremely gifted storyteller, but there was nothing literary about him. He studied engineering at university, served in both world wars, and wrote about ordinary people: craftsmen, nurses, farmers, engineers.

One of his best books, No Highway, tells the story of a reclusive aeronautical engineer in the early days of jet travel who discovers that the plane he is travelling on suffers from metal fatigue and could crash at any time. It is all the better for no long words or literary references, and given massive authority by Shute’s own deep knowledge of the complex subject matter. Our hero ends up marrying an air hostess.

Shute’s posthumous disappearance from the literary record helps us understand why many contemporary novels disappoint. Today’s novelists tend to move in a narrow social circle, mingle with other writers, attend