No Highway

by Nevil Shute

Theodore Honey is a scientist with an interest in the paranormal and a job testing metal fatigue in aircraft. When a new transatlantic plane, the Reindeer, is found to have crashed in Labrador, Theodore believes he knows why. The scientist is sent to the scene of the crash. En route to Canada Theodore learns he is flying in a Reindeer and is in danger.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Adventure, Aviation, Classics, Historical Fiction, Historical

281 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Nevil Shute Norway was a popular British novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer.

He used Nevil Shute as his pen name, and his full name in his engineering career, in order to protect his engineering career from any potential negative publicity in connection with his novels.

He lived in Australia for the ten years before his death.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderful post-world war II tale from Shute. An almost autistic (Aspergers?) brainiac identifies a serious error in the make-up of the most popular British commercial aircraft leading to an almost farcical string of occurrences as the corporate and Government worlds try to rubbish his claim. Great read! 8 out of 12., Four Star read.

2013 read

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A plane crashes in Labrador. It was a Rutland Reindeer aircraft. At Farnborough in Hampshire, England, is located The Royal Aircraft Establishment. There, Dennis Scott is in charge of aircraft security. It lies under his responsibility to see that aircraft flown are safe. If they are not it lies under his authority to ground them until dangerous faults and / or weaknesses are investigated and remedied if need be. He becomes acquainted with Theodore Honey, an eccentric scientist carrying out research on metal fatigue. Possibly the cause of the Labrador crash was due to a metal fatigue fracture.

The story told is both exciting and heartwarming.

Here is why it is so very good:
*Complicated technical, mechanical and scientific terms are made understandable. Scientific details are not downplayed, but instead explained in simple clear language.
*We are not merely told, but also shown characters’ personality traits.
*Characters are drawn realistically, but not simplistically. One example is the aircraft designer. He is both haughty and full of himself, but he also demands that a product be of topnotch quality. That which is slipshod, he sees with utter distain. If a problem with a product should arise, it must be dealt with quickly, efficiently and expertly.
*Humor is thrown into the mix. Here again I am thinking of the designer. He can slash down opponents with a glance or a bare two or three cutting words. They are so accurate and to the point that you smile. When fighting on the side of what is just, honorable, and right, you love him. We are told of these qualities and his behavior in the tale displays them.
*The bureaucratically minded are realistically drawn. Here again you cannot help but smile. Rather than through grumbling and complaining, a critical view is expressed through humor. I like this approach.
*We rub shoulders with characters that are a joy to meet. They are honorable and stick to their word, even when not to their own benefit. Some are meek and humble but also extremely intelligent, some proud, some in-between.
*Mysticism and the supernatural are drawn into the story in a believable manner, not exaggerated, nor forced but rather as a possibility worthy of consideration. Must we fully understand the unknown for it to be true?
*You finish the story in a good frame of mind.

I don’t know about you, but I find this story believable. Realism is my cup of tea.

Ben Elliot narrates the audiobook very, very well. His voice is clear and strong. He doesn’t overdramatize. He lets the strength of the story and the straightforwardness of the prose speak for themselves. The narration is definitely worth four stars, just as the book is.

********************

*The Chequer Board 4 stars
*No Highway 4 stars
*The Far Country 4 stars
*Landfall 4 stars
*Beyond The Black Stump 4 stars
*Pied Piper 3 stars
*Ruined City 3 stars
*Trustee from the Toolroom 3 stars
*The Rainbow and the Rose 3 stars
*Requiem for a Wren 2 stars
*Pastoral 1 star
*So Distained TBR
*Most Secret TBR
*Slide Rule: The Autobiography of an Engineer TBR
*On the Beach not available to me
*A Town Like Alice not available to me

[Jenne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh Nevil Shute, how are you so fascinating?
His books are always about these sort of greyish people who eventually triumph in the end because of their deep-down decency and competence.
There's usually a whole lot of technical details about airplanes.
And just when you're really getting into it, you get slapped in the face by attitudes of half a century ago.
And despite all this, they are addictive as all hell.

In this one, there's a genius engineer named Mr. Honey (not kidding) who is also a crackpot. He discovers a fatal flaw in some airplanes, and no one believes him except his boss who is neither a genius or a crackpot, but he is a decent guy.

So Mr Honey has to go on a crazy air journey halfway across the world, because that's what you do if you're a colorless shy decent genius in a Nevil Shute novel, and then of course some beautiful intelligent women fall in love with him (one of them is a movie star) and decide that the best use they could possibly make of their lives is to keep house for him and his daughter (his wife died tragically in the war) because being a genius apparently means that you have never heard of washing your floors.

Also he is the kindest bravest man who has ever existed but he mainly manifests this by blinking pathetically at ladies who then feel compelled to bring him Ovaltine. Plus he more or less ignores his daughter except when he is using her to experiment with some kind of Ouija Board technology.

Anyway, despite it being completely fucking ridiculous, I couldn't put it down. I don't know.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

I absolutely love reading books by Nevil Shute and this one is no exception. Most of Shute’s books take an average or slightly eccentric person and places them in situations that are extraordinary. They are forced to step outside of themselves in order to overcome the situation they find themselves in. This one is about Theodore Honey. He is a genius with little or no social skills. He holds a theory that a new airliner just entering public service has a fatal flaw.

One of these aircraft has crashed. In the wreckage is evidence to prove or disprove his theory. Honey is a lab man and has no business being in the field, he is a nerd, a slide rule and the laboratory are where he belongs. Situational circumstances force the decision that he must undertake the trip to the crash site.

Along the way we learn a lot about Mr. Honey and the others that cross his path. Shute has wonderful story telling skills and this one is terrific. I enjoyed every minute I spent reading it. If you get the chance and land a copy, read it, I think you will like it.

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's interesting to re-read a book after a long time, and see whether your opinion of it has changed. I first read Aldous Huxley's Brave New World when I was about 17, and found it very exciting and stimulating. I re-read it when I was 57, and after 40 years found it rather flat and dull. I've just finished reading No Highway after a gap of about 60 years, and found it as good as when I first read it.

It was interesting to see what I remembered and what I had forgotten. I was about 13 or 14 when I first read it, when I was still crazy about aeroplanes and wanted to be a pilot. By the time I was 15 my ambitions had dropped, and my main interest was cars. From the age of 11 to 14 most of what I read had something to do with aeroplanes, and if No Highway had not been about aeroplanes I would probably not have read it at all.

When I first read the book the most memorable things were the technical bits to do with the aircraft. I could recall the love story vaguely, but I could not recall the British Israelite angle at all, though it is quite prominent in the story, though I did recall the part with the planchette.

I read it about the time that the first commercial jets, the De Havilland Comets, were in the news because of unexplained crashes. I seem to recall that when it was determined that the cause of the crashes was metal fatigue I knew what that meant because it was central to the plot of No Highway but it is possible that it was the other way round -- that I understood the point of the plot because of the real-life incidents with the Comets.

It was the first book by Nevil Shute that I had read, and because I had enjoyed it I went on to read others written by him, though I still thought (and after re-reading it still think) )that No Highway was one of his best. I think it has aged well. Of course, one is aware that it belongs to its time, and that many things have changed since then. On the technical side the most obvious thing is air navigation. Back then the cabin crews were small (because the planes were smaller and carried fewer passengers) but the flight-deck crew was large, including, in addition to two pilots, a flight engineer, a navigator and a wireless operator. Advances in electronics have made the last two redundant.

Social attitudes too are different. One of the most noticeable is that sex has replaces smoking as one of the most commonly-described recreational activities. Another is that sex roles were much more rigid back then: males were useless at cooking and cleaning and buying clothes for children; females were useless at research and design.

I find the social differences interesting too, because I'm also reading a historical novel, Dissolution by C.J. Sansom. When reading historical novels I always have one eye out for anachronisms, things that the author gets wrong about the period in which the novel is set. No Highway is set in our past, but it was contemporary when it was written. So when I first read it, it was much closer to the time in which it was set and I did not notice such things, but the second time around, it gives an authentic view of a vanished past. Give it another 60 years, and some things in the book may need to be annotated, because there will then be no one around who lived thourgh that period. But I thought it was a good read back then, and it's still a good read now, and probably will be in 60 years' time too,

[Ian Laird · Rating 3 out of 5]

“…this aircraft is in a very dangerous condition. It’s got a very serious fatigue trouble in the tailplane. You must turn back to England at once.”
-Theodore Honey, p57

Not a bad way to begin a story- with an aeroplane about to fall out of the sky.

If you heard someone say here is a novel centred on metal fatigue, that might not be terribly compelling, but metal fatigue which might kick in at any moment with a devastating effect on a select group of passengers whom we have got to know quite well – that is another story.

The bespectacled research scientist Dr Theodore Honey, a specialist in metal fatigue, is flying to Canada in a Reindeer aircraft, to investigate the earlier mysterious crash of the same type of aircraft, which stacked into a mountain in the wilds of Labrador. Suddenly realising the danger, mild mannered Dr Honey has expressed his apprehensions to the nice stewardess Marjorie Corder and to Monica Teasdale, a famous, much-married American film star, an erstwhile favourite of Theo’s and his late wife. Miss Teasdale, though seriously past her best years, is still a magnetic presence.

Despite Theo’s warning, the pilot, Captain Samuelson, flies on to Canada but heeds the scientist’s words by cutting the middle engines. It emerges that the pilot of the crashed plane was a long-time friend and colleague and Captain Samuelson doubts the crash was due to pilot error. When it is clear that the current flight will resume, Honey takes matters into his own hands and disables the plane by raising the landing gear, while the plane is on the tarmac. Bent plane.

With this surprising and uncharacteristic act the unassuming and unlikely hero draws attention to himself and his cause with far reaching personal and professional consequences. Both the stewardess and the actress fall for him in their way, the stewardess wants to care for him and create something more worthwhile in her life, the actress yearns for solid domestic happiness which might have been hers had she said yes to the home town boy rather than seek the brighter lights. In this way Shute supplies a pattern of incompleteness in his characters lives which by the end of the book is remedied in good part. Dr Honey lives in a world of domestic male incompetence which can only be remedied with the installation of a good woman; who will it be – stewardess or actress? Even Dr Honey’s boss Dennis Scott (our narrator) has a wife, but no child – life isn’t fulfilled until the family is created.

All of this would be faintly risible without Shute’s sincerity and essential goodness, and we should acknowledge that his attitudes and understanding reflect the time he lived in. What he does excel at and we see this throughout his work, is his understanding of hierarchies and bureaucracies, realms with which Shute was exceedingly familiar: in this case the research institution, air safety and air force officialdom and the world inhabited by aviators and aircraft designers and builders. Shute has an unerring eye for how men (almost always men) have to manage research, ensure safety, contend with business pressures and deal with professionals, bureaucrats and the public. Witness how Dr Scott goes out on a limb to back his scientist, who is decidedly eccentric, if not weird, without any substantial technical evidence, when balancing the need for the safety of passengers against the imperatives of aircraft manufacturing and running a passenger service.

A deeply human and quite exciting story.

A final word on character names: Shute is good at this: as David Lodge points out in The Art of Fiction authors decide what to call their characters, often to telling effect: Theodore Honey is pure and sweet, cannot be altered or improved, he is just what he is; the straight forward narrator Dennis Scott is solid and commanding; the difficult and forceful designer is E P Prendergast, just initials and a surname which connotes bluster and tumult.

As for the actress and the stewardess, who is going to win their way into the affections of Dr Honey, an American whose name half spells tease, or someone called Corder, ie one who ties a knot? Great fun. I am not biblical enough to know whether Samuelson has any significant meaning, but it would not surprise.

[Terris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Nevil Shute's novels so much and this one did not disappoint! I was initially surprised at how much I was enjoying this book which was about a fleet of airplanes (in the 1940s) that were very probably going to lose their tails in flight and kill all on board -- according to scientific studies. And the story goes on from there, dealing with all involved in this particular type of plane: the owners, the designers, the safety engineers, and the scientists studying the defective tail. The problem is -- there is no definite proof yet, but they can't just wait and let people die.

So, the story goes! And if you told me that I would enjoy a book like this, I wouldn't have believed you! ;)

However, if you know anything about Nevil Shute, you know that as scientifically minded and experienced as he is in such matters, he always makes it easy to understand, and he adds in lots of characters that are very endearing and down-to-earth. You can't help but love them all!

In this one there is suspense, mystery, romance, and even a little paranormal activity! I enjoyed it so much and highly recommend it :)

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whew, finally finished this! Very tedious reading because the plot was so focused on a certain type of plane and Mr. Honey trying to test mental fatigue after around 1,400 hours of flying time. I like planes and flying, but all I can say was that this was boring. Really boring :P I like the beginning and Mr. Honey's character was unique (although weird at times). My favorite scene was when he was in the plane scaring everyone about crashing.

Anyway, glad to have read this, and I probably will still watch the movie based off this book. I'll hope it's a little more interesting :)

[Gopal Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eccentric engineer predicts a deadly design flaw in a new airliner, and no one believes him. Nevil Shute has written yet another absorbing story about intuition, bureaucracy, and a man who was right when it mattered most.

Written just after WW2, what struck me were the very 1940s touches that feel quite unbelievable today:

Aviation in an era of good intentions— People wandering into cockpits, Security protocols, maintenance checks, all so astonishingly informal.

The casual blending of nuclear physics with everyday engineering— The idea that a newly discovered nuclear-fission principle with neutrons knocking atoms loose resulting in metal fatigue is technically wobbly.

And finally, the notion that a shy, absent-minded engineer seamlessly earning the admiration of all the women around him feels more like a fantasy than something drawn from real life.

In spite of all this, the book was thoroughly entertaining. Mr. Shute can certainly spin a tale. Best enjoyed “with a pinch of salt”.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Highway builds an absorbing, suspenseful story around the unlikely basis of scientific research—which takes on a much stronger immediacy when it casts doubt on the safety of an airplane. The trouble is, the theory suggesting the aircraft are unsafe comes from Theodore Honey, an untidy, eccentric scientist whom few take seriously. One of his superiors, the book's narrator Dennis Scott, believes he may be right, but convincing higher officials poses a difficult problem. When Honey is sent to Canada to investigate the wreckage of one of the aircraft which crashed, he finds that the plane on which he is traveling is near the possible danger point and tries to have it grounded. The aftermath of this incident, Honey's relationships with a stewardess and a fellow-passenger he met on the threatened plane, and the involvement of the narrator and his wife with Honey and his motherless young daughter Elspeth, form the rest of the plot.

I read this novel after having watched and enjoyed the 1951 film adaptation No Highway In the Sky. It's a case, I think, where book and film are both very good on their own and complement each other well even though they differ in some particulars. In the book we get much deeper into the hearts and minds of the characters, and many are much better developed than the constraints of a film allowed. I found it curious how the film's casting, in a physical sense, was totally wrong, and yet still managed to pull off the portrayal of the characters so I felt I recognized them when I read the novel. The one I appreciated much more in the book was Monica Teasdale—her reflections on her simple American roots and what direction her life might have taken had she not become a famous actress are very moving, and naturally not something translated to film with the foreign glamor of Marlene Dietrich in the role. Jimmy Stewart's Theodore Honey was also played a little more broadly comical, whereas in the book Honey is rather more pathetic and troubled. In the film the doubts of Honey's sanity seem to be based more off his absent-minded personality, where the book gives him a background of more intricate issues such as his interest in spiritualism and apocryphal religious theories and prophecies. It seems more reasonable for people to doubt a man's sanity because he believes he can predict the end of the world from the angle of the Great Pyramid than because he tries to unlock the door of the wrong house.

The first-person narration is unique: the narrator relates events he witnessed, but also the parts that took place in his absence, with so much detail that it's practically third-person. I've only encountered two authors that used this method, Shute and Max Brand. You don't want to let the amounts of technical language put you off; even if it's Greek to you, you can just go with the flow and gain a basic understanding from the context, for it is after all a vital part of the story. It's written in such a way that I found it fascinating, even though most of it was beyond me. The film's main weakness, a rather abrupt ending, is not present in the novel, which is much better rounded off and concluded (the part that Honey's spiritualist dabblings play in the resolution is certainly eyebrow-raising, but somewhat amusing). A good read.

[Lita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science, airplanes, and bureaucratic rows with a dash of mysticism make quite an entertaining story. Nevil Shute is one of those classic authors that never disappoint with the ability to weave an intriguing story even if half of it takes place in an office or conference room. Not to mention that it was interesting to read about something that my colleagues at the university are nowadays doing with space technologies instead of airplanes. I'm just not sure if they're equally disconnected from the real world as our main hero Mr. Honey. Anyhow, I have enjoyed some of Shute's other novels a little bit better, but it was still a great read.

[heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, Nevil Shute. I do so adore your unabashed authorial self-insertion. I haven't read all Nevil Shute, or even the majority, but the ones I have read, I have strong opinions about.

In this one, Shute is himself twice, both in the narrator (a young manager at an aeronautics company) and the main character, a weedy, pathetic, but brilliant "boffin".

The novel opens with the young manager, Scott, talking about his job managing a bunch of brilliant but mildly eccentric scientists at a safety facility, a job much like the one Shute had before the WWII. One of his scientists, Theodore Honey, is drawn as extremely eccentric. He is widowed, with a pre-teen daughter, and is essentially uncivilized in a way that is acceptable only in older novels. He doesn't know how to cook or clean or buy clothes. He is interested in many crackpot theories, including pyramidology, and the return of Jesus to England. He is also quite brilliant at what he does, aeronautics-wise.

Honey comes to Scott and tells him that the tail assembly of the brand new plane currently flying the Transatlantic flight is going to crystallize and shear off after a certain number of hours. He is running tests on a tail to be sure, but it will be months before they get confirmation. Scott is torn on whether to take this seriously on not. On the one hand, pyramidology. On the other hand, planes falling out of the sky for a reason that manifests quickly and without warning.

Scott orders Honey to step up the testing and goes to see his own boss to quietly freak out about planes falling out of the sky. He finds out that one of these planes HAS fallen out of the sky -- the prototype, which had almost the correct number of hours for Honey's theory, crashed in a stupid way. It had been ruled pilot error, but the coincidence made Scott edgy.

Scott and his boss decide that someone needs to go out to Newfoundland to investigate the wreckage. Scott would go, but he is going to present his big important professional paper, and so he decides to send Honey, who is not... personable, but is the expert on crystallized metal fatigue.

As you can imagine, the plot is more complicated from there. I shan't give it all away, except to note that I find it completely and hilariously charming that Shute, who was 49 when it was published, depicted the nerdy, asocial little engineer as charming both an aging movie star and a bright and beautiful flight stewardess.

Thematically, I can tell that this book was written in the era when Shute still had faith in the British system. It was not long after this that he emigrated to Australia because he found the country no longer to his taste.

This book is by no means as strong as A Town Like Alice or On The Beach, but it is not unworthy to be on the shelf with them. Shute's charming older men: the narrators in Alice and Pied Piper, the Trustee from the Toolroom, are all extremely homey and sympathetic. I always like to think of them as Shute himself, spinning stories. I haven't read much from his early works, but I may go seek them out. Evidently some of them are about daring young pilots, which Shute also was.

I enjoy reading period books that do not think of themselves as period books. It is not notable that Honey has trouble working his ration coupons and has three years of his jam sugar allotment saved. Of course air stewardesses are unmarried and of course young wives don't work. When I read stories that are ABOUT a period, these things always feel highlighted, but when I read books IN a period, they are just part of how life goes.

Read if: You want to read about failure and risk analysis. Stories about nerdy little men who have women contending for them are amusing to you. The installation of domestic hot water heaters is something you had never thought about. You can tolerate some strange woo-woo in your mostly-science.

Skip if: You want a lot of action, intrigue, or plausible romance. You have problems with outdated science. You are unwilling to read about the typical breakfasts served to transatlantic passengers of the era*.

* I did enjoy reading about the time in Gander. I mostly know it as the place a lot of transatlantic flights ended up at after 9/11, but of course, it's been an airport for a very long time.

[Igenlode Wordsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nevil Shute was an engineer by trade (he worked at de Havilland and on the development of the R.100 airship -- the one that *didn't* crash) who eventually became a full-time novelist, and a lot of his books contain a lot of technical detail which he always manages to make fascinating: think Dick Francis. One wonders just how biographical the first-person narrator of "No Highway", working in a big aircraft research institution and wrestling with unworldly pure research boffins and temperamental prima donna aircraft designers, actually was! (Several of Shute's novels are written using the device of a first-person narrator who is *not* the main protagonist, and in this one the narrator probably plays a larger part in the action than is usual for Shute's books, although because he is a minor character written in the first person we don't even discover his name until his wife eventually addresses him by it )
The book is neither a romance nor a 'slice of life' novel, though it contains both elements around the edges, as it were; it is basically a character study of Mr Honey, who is a stereotypical eccentric scientist type who gets himself unwillingly mixed up in dramatic events when it dawns on someone (the narrator) that Mr Honey's abstract research on metal fatigue in aeroplanes has some very alarming real-life implications. The book contains office politics, a lot of science the accuracy of which I cannot vouch for (the author cleverly passes the buck by having the narrator unable to understand it either), some humour from Mr Honey's ineptness and eccentric family life, some romance, the famous tense flight when nobody knows whether the aircraft is going to crash or not, and a lot of human relations. Nevil Shute is pretty good at showing us people through other people's eyes. But this is a straight novel set at the time of writing, and *not* anything like your average 'heartwarming saga' or historical novel; any historical detail that emerges is entirely around the edges, because the intended readership were living in that era and didn't need it lovingly recreated for them in heavily-researched detail.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 19748, this is an enjoyable and suspenseful mystery novel that doesn't involve any murders, but does involve some science and technical aspects (this is more my type of thing). It's almost cozy. The themes of the novel include the tangles of bureaucracy (some of these people need a smack! or at least in a Reindeer aircraft that has been flying about for several months), attitudes to safety, conflicts of interest between management and professionals, Cold War diplomacy (the Russians are being difficult and suspicious), single parenthood, and clairvoyance (the automatic writing was an odd addition to the story). 

The story revolves around whether or not the tailplane of the new Reinderr aircraft are subject to metal fatigue after a certain number of flight hours, and thus breakage and the resultant plane crashes. The novel is narrated by Dr Dennis Scott, an aeronauticist recently appointed head of the structural department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE), but mostly revolves around the eccentric, nervous, single-minded and unimpressive in appearance, widower, single father, but very meticulous scientist, Theodore Honey. Sent to Canada to examine the debris from a previous plane crash, Honey soon finds out the plane he is flying in is one of the Reindeer aircraft, and that it has done more flight hours than expected. Honey must now, somehow, convince the pilot to turn around before the tailplane falls off and they crash. Honey's method of averting disaster is met with outrage and consternation in some quarters, but was actually pretty amusing. While all this was going on, mild domestic drama ensures on the other side of the Atlantic where Honey's childcare arrangements fall through. I really enjoyed the interactions Honey has between the various characters, and how differently their perceptions of him are. I also liked how various people went out of their way to help Honey, even when they were half-convinced that he was crazy.

Nevil Shute was an aeronautical engineer and had dealings with government officials on some of his projects. While 'No Highway' is fictional, I suspect it is fairly realistic and based on Shute's personal experiences... and interestingly enough, the de Havilland DH.106 Comet (the world's first commercial jet airliner) failed as a result of metal fatigue several years later, in 1954.

This was my first Nevil Shute novel, and it will not be my last!

[David Dennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. Nevil Shute’s stories just keep getting better--though my edition by was full of typos (as was Ruined City which was awful). At first, I thought this book about aircraft engineering might be dull. But Shute did not disappoint. He is comfortable telling about his own subject as an expert in aeroplane design, engineering and flying.

A youngish man is put in charge of the British Research Laboratory at Farnborough. He soon learns that one of his employees, a religious eccentric, believes he’s discovered massive faults in a plane that’s recently taken to the skies. Through research he learns the tail could fail after 1400 hours of flight.

Dr. Dennis Scott realizes he has about a 1000 hours to do something before the planes in service fail in the air. It is discovered that one that has crashed over Canada had in fact done almost 1400 hours—since it had been the plane used in testing. Resolving the issue is now urgent and the tension builds nicely.

When Shute describes Mr. Honey, you have to wonder if he is describing some aspects of his own character in a disparaging way. He seems to show sympathy for Mr. Honey, who is a spiritual being, like Shute himself.

I think he may also be describing Barnes Wallis when he references Prendergast who seems like a bit of a tyrant—as one assumes that genius had to be at times. He describes, or I have read, where Wallis used to make himself ill sometimes with the stress of designing and building Airship R100, which he and Nevil Shute were engaged upon – especially due to the song and dance routines of Air Ministry bureaucrats and the Politicians, such as Lord Thomson of Cardington – not to mention the press. Shades of Airship R101 tragedy appear too. High level arguing about airworthiness, profit and prestige at the expense of human life and ambition. The research establishment etc. comes into the story, as it did with the R101 boffins who were not allowed to finish their study of the amended, redesigned airship and come to their conclusions. A whitewash and cover-up was the result.

This story has modern day overtones too: i.e. with the grounding by President Donald J Trump
of 737’s all over the world with profits and prestige affected. Shute talks a lot about psychic phenomena in this book. I had not realized just how far into those subjects he had gone.

The novel seems a little fantastic in parts, but at the end Dr. Scott’s wife tells him he really should write all this down as it will make a good book. I had to wonder if Shute was hinting that much of this story is true? After all, fact is often stranger than fiction. Did he play around with the Ouija board and planchette? Did that happen? We’ll never know.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free download available at Faded Page.

Another excellent book by Nevil Shute.

From IMDb:
An aeronautical engineer predicts that a new model of plane will fail catastrophically and in a novel manner after a specific number flying hours.

A movie was made based on this book No Highway in the Sky (1951) with James Stewart (Theodore Honey),
Marlene Dietrich (Monica Teasdale) and Glynis Johns (Marjorie Corder).

5* A Town Like Alice
2* On the Beach
4* Pied Piper
4* Landfall
4.5* Most secret
4* Marazan
3* Requiem for a Wren
4* No Highway
TR The Rainbow and the Rose
TR Trustee from the Toolroom
TR The Chequer Board

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a weird one. Fundamentally, there's a good yarn here but it is clothed in some very old-fashioned views about gender; about social status and about families. It made for slightly uncomfortable reading, even though I have lived through the era in which is was set and I therefore understand how things were then and how times have changed.
I would not therefore recommend the book very strongly.

[Georgie-who-is-Sarah-Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging read, with a heart and a strong period flavour. There's a reason Nevil Shute was a best-seller in his time: he constructs strong characters, there's a real story, and he's not afraid to bolster the plot with technical detail—the more convincing because he was himself an aeronautical engineer. In Lee Child terms, this is not a "pacy" book, but there is a sense of dramatic tension throughout.

Some oddities (or, at least, they read so now). I was aware of them while reading, but they didn't spoil the book.

The most noticeable is the strange hybrid of POVs. The first part is told in the first person, then we flip to multiple 3rd person POVs (but the original narrator stilll butts in from time to time).

One passing reference (completely unnecessary) to an unnamed character having a very hooked nose, with the strong implication the character is Jewish. It's not refined on further, neither pro or con—so why include the stereotypical detail at all?

Women do work, but in subordinate roles, and there's a glorification of how a good housewife can support her husband's career.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

A withdrawn scientist working in self contented obscurity is forced into trying to avert aviation disaster. It starts clever but ends very stupid. A fine thriller ruined not by plotting but by the relentless desire of the author to foist an unlikely happy personal ending. Could have been so much better.

[Sharone Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of the book is taken from the poem The Wandered by John Masefield:

“Therefore, go forth, companion: when you find
No Highway more, no track, all being blind,
The way to go shall glimmer in the mind.
Though you have conquered earth and charted sea,
And planned the courses of all stars that be,
Adventure on, more wonders are in thee.
Adventure on, for from the littlest clue has come
whatever worth man ever knew.
The next to lighten all men may be you.”

On the surface, it seems that this book is about material fatigue in airplane, an issue that was not well understood in the early days of commercial flights. As a contemporary reader who knows that material fatigue has claimed the lives of many, it's interesting to read about the scientist (Honey) warning against this possibility, and about the few people who believed him and the enormous opposition, filled with powerful, rich men who dismissed him. And when Honey ends up on a plane that is about to experience said material fatigue at any moment, things get really tense.

But what stayed with me was that which is underneath the surface. Scott, Honey's boss, says a few times that he wished Honey had a more commanding presence and stature so that people wouldn't dismiss him so quickly. Honey is often referred to as a "little man" by Nevil Shute, whose ambition as an author is to highlight the importance of the little men and women of the world.

Honey is indeed a very shy "nerd," but he's also an incredible scientist, which cannot be referred to as small in my book. The book shined a light on how often people judge others by their appearance and not their character. Luckily, there are those few individuals who are more perceptive than others. I won't reveal anymore, except to recommend this book. I enjoyed it.

Note about the movie No Highway in the Sky (starring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich): The is fine, but it does omit many things from the book. I still think it's worth seeing, especially to really get a sense of the enormity of what Mr. Honey did in the Gander airport.

[Nomadman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure how to rate this. It's a curious mixture of the gripping and the absolutely mundane. The gripping part involves a search by a bunch of engineers to prove that the tail wing of a new passenger plane contains a latent design flaw (which admittedly doesn't sound that gripping, but in Nevil Shute's hands becomes so) while the mundane part concerns pretty much everything else, specifically a horrendous domestic drama involving a cast of insipid female characters straight out of a Cholmondley Warner sketch.

Honestly, I'm not sure why Shute thought this constituted the "bits that make it fun" as he more or less makes one of his characters say on the final page. I'm not even sure if it would've been particularly fun for his readers at the time. With the exception of the narrator's wife, it would be hard to call these characters anything other than vapidly drawn caricatures, a sort of wish fulfilment wife fancy for men of the 1940s, I suppose, loyal, sweet tempered, a bit dim but keen to learn all the domestic duties required of them. And ever so pretty. Etc.

Another thing which bothered me was that Shute frequently violated one of the principal rules of POV by narrating several chapters outside of the experience of the main character (the book is written in the first person). I'm not usually a massive stickler for things like that, but the fact that pretty much all these chapters involved the nonsense above made them seem especially pointless.

Luckily the main story is a belter, and Shute has an excellent way of conveying pretty technical engineering terms to the layman in a clear and concise manner. Had the book focussed purely on this aspect of the story and cut out all the fluff I'd probably be rating it a four.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Watchdogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Highway by Nevil Shute
First published in 1948 by William Heinemann, London.
I read the 1948 American edition pub. by William Morrow & Co.

4 High Flying Stars !!

Brief summary -
Theodore Honey is a homely [American definition] man, a scientist investigating aeronautical metal fatigue, a socially awkward person with a lack of social skills which today would likely be attributed to autism spectrum disorder. In his spare time he is interested in pyramidology, psychic phenomena, historic migrations and interplanetary travel. While undertaking his work experiments, his supervisor, Dennis Scott, new chief of metallurgy at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, becomes concerned that metal fatigue may have contributed to the recent crash of a Rutland Reindeer aircraft in Newfoundland. The story revolves around the ensuing investigation and the conflicts of interest between the safety scientists and the airline and aircraft design and manufacture executives. The plot weaves together many themes, such as attitudes toward safety, Cold War diplomacy, single parenthood, clairvoyance and care for one another.

My thoughts -
No Highway is a post WW2 aviation novel which grips the mind and tugs at the heart. It's a prime example of juggling a workload involving a crucial decision-making process intended to possibly save lives juxtaposed with holding one's own vis-a-vis work contemporaries representing opposing opinions. All the while, lives may be put at risk as the experiments wear on, securing vital crash site evidence may be difficult to obtain, and the clock keeps ticking as the planes rack up more flight hours.

Very good character development, consistency throughout, tremendously engaging, an all-around thoroughly enjoyable read. Highly recommended, especially for readers who enjoy vintage aeronautics, the post WW2 era, or who just want to read a damn good story.

P.S. By all means, don't skip the Author's Note at the end.

[Clive Grewcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realise he has gone out of fashion and he is very much of his time (and why wouldn’t he be), but I still think Shute is one of the great story tellers and this is an easy and engrossing read. Yes, everyone smokes, the men go to work, the women are home makers, but this was written in 1948 about 1948. That said it predates the problems that beset the de Havilland Comet in the 1950s, so in some ways it is ahead of its time. Of course, I could have done without the Mystic Meg stuff, but that’s just me.

[Jim Puskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of the usual Nevil Shute themes are here: airplanes and the people who design, build and operate them; the complicated personal relationships that develop among people under stress; and even a touch of the arcane realm of spiritualist inquiry. And one of Shute's favorite devices, the spunk, adaptability and integrity of seemingly unremarkable or socially inept individuals who, despite lacking advantages in a highly class-conscious society, prove themselves capable of great things against all odds. So there are similarities with Trustee from the Toolroom, The Pied Piper and even Lonely Road. This is also one of Shute's most dramatic stories, one where powerful forces oppose the men who strive to avert imminent disaster.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another classic, chosen randomly off a high bookshelf late on Saturday night. I hadn't thought that I had read No Highway before and I was after a fresh read but I must have read it once many many moons ago as the sequence in the cockpit at Gander was familiar. I couldn't remember anything from the story at all and so thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

No Highway is part-romance, part-thriller and part-scientific whodunnit, all aspects that are skillfully woven together. As I have commented before, I am amazed at how authors of this era (immediately post-WW2) can tell a complex and detailed story without recourse to the bloat that afflicts many modern novels. I think that a good part of it is that authors of days gone by don't feel that they have to inflict every last word of a conversation or description of an object or location on the reader.

I am possibly advantaged in this area as I have an aviation background but I thought that the technical aspects of the story were covered in such a manner that both technical lay-folk and those with some experience in these areas will be equally comfortable with the content which is a vital to the story line. I was less comfortable with some of the non-scientific themes in the book but that it more a reflection of my own thoughts as opposed to how they are discussed in No Highway and I think it is a credit to the author that he manages to achieve this - I also thought that this book was a great reminder of the time before email and cell phones were such an easy out for communication and that there were once modern times when getting a message from the UK to the wilds of Canada in a couple of days was considered pretty impressive!

I will have to hunt down the movie version now to see how well the book translates - I would really recommend it for any one with an interest in the technical aspects of aviation, with a smattering of romance, or who is simply looking for a good read by the fire...

[Tatiana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd forgotten how good this one was. My favorite scene was the meeting when all the proper British types let fly at one another over the matter of the possibility of fatigue fractures in the tailplane of the fictional Reindeer aircraft. It reminded me of many a contentious meeting I've seen while working to put new machinery into commission in mills and plants around the world. I was very proud of our narrator for standing by his employee Mr. Honey even when he did something so crazy as lifting the undercarriage of a plane that the operators wouldn't ground that was unsafe. He pulled the switch to lift the undercarriage while the plane was sitting on the tarmac. Up went the wheels and down came the plane on its belly. He grounded it all right. =) I wish my bosses would stand behind their employees so steadfastly as that.

The movie they made of this book features James Stewart as Mr. Honey, and he's perfect for the role. When something similar happened to real airplanes in Britain a decade after this book came out, people asked
"Where is Mr. Honey?"

Nevil Shute is so funny and great. His books are totally true to life. He's got the greatest understated sense of humor. Mr. Honey is one of my favorite of his characters. Please read this one. It's a sheer delight.

[Elinor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm on a Nevil Shute kick, and I'm really enjoying the way he can transport me away from reality into his incredibly detailed and engaging world. His characters are always so finely drawn that I feel as if I know them. In this case, a fussy little scientist discovers that an aircraft is fatally flawed and hundreds of lives hang in the balance. His poor communications skills and wacky religious beliefs, coupled with his sheer scientific genius, create a complex situation. The other characters react to him in various ways. Is he crazy, or does he know what he's talking about? Only time will tell, but the clock is running out. This is probably the forerunner of the autistic characters found in so many contemporary novels. It was a condition not fully understood back in the 1950s.

[Mahtab · Rating 4 out of 5]

ای همسفر، آنگاه که می بینی
دیگر راهی نیست، کوره راهی نیست و همه بن بست است،
پیش رو،راه در دلت خواهد درخشید
اگر گیتی را سراسر پیموده باشی،اگر دریاها را نوردیده باشی،
تگر مسیر ستارگان را رسم کرده باشی،
باز هم خطر کن، که شکفتی های بیشتر در درون توست.
خطر کن،چرا که از ساده ترین هاست
که انسان به پر بهاترین دانش ها دست یافته است
چه بسا که دیگر روشنگر همه مردمان تو باشی...
جان میسفیلد شاعر و رمان نویس انگلیسی

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

The story of why systems fail by the Michael Crichton of an earlier era. Could be the story of the de Havilland comet, but the story predates the Comet