Stephen Morris

by Nevil Shute

BACK COVER:

"Outstanding" -New York Times

Stephen Morris

"There will not be a more pleasant, more honest or more sincere piece of fiction this year...The story concerns a young English aviator in the twenties and the struggle to establish the aviation industry in the years just after the First World War. Here is pathos, tenderness and human understanding in the growth, development, disappointments and achievements of this young man. There are many incidents you will find hard to forget- the testing of early planes, he death of a good friend, his marriage to a girl out of his class and the drama, excitement and perils of the first overseas flights...heartwarming, satisfactory, exceptionally rewarding" - Boston Herald

A Lancer Book- Complete & Unabridged

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Classics, Literary Fiction, Aviation

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

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

[David Dennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book believing it was one of his later works and that his writing style had matured. I was surprised to learn I was completely wrong; he’d written these novellas in the twenties.

There are two nice love stories entwined in these interrelated tales. Coincidences abound, but that’s okay as it seems permissible in art. There are also a couple of moments of fantasy, a hallmark of Shute’s writing. The plots are interesting, boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again. And as with so many of his books, there is much to do with flying and sailing. He also expresses his love of the West Country and all things English (with the exception of the rising tide of Socialism).

The novellas tell of the early struggles of British aviation mostly due to lack of funding. The second describes how they had invented a highly dangerous scheme to catapult a plane off a ship in mid Atlantic in order to save a day or two in mail delivery (not sure if this is based on fact). This seems incomprehensible today, now we can email a document with a phone across the world within seconds.

Nevil Shute went to Oxford and I guess when he wrote the following, it perhaps suggests he didn’t hold all of the staff in the highest esteem: ‘They were for clever people, for dons and embryo dons who would spend their lives in thinking of scholarly epigrams to let off at their fellows, in moulding their manner to fit in with the traditions of the place, in travelling to Athens in the vacations. Ineffective people, who would never do anything in the world but tell young men all about the humanities. He was sick of the lot of them. He was a mathematician and a student of realities.’

Shute, like many in those days, thought there were differences between men and women—at least this paragraph might give such an impression: ‘A man isn’t like a girl, you know,’ she said, almost to herself. ‘A girl when she marries is quite happy with her home, and her children, and she doesn’t want much else. But a man is different. He’s like a little boy that has to have his toys ... a man has to have his toys, and if you take them away from him you—you just kill him. The round of golf, or the club, or—or yachting. Once he gets really fond of a toy ... if his wife takes it away from him she can never make it up to him, however much she loves him. It’s just gone, and you can’t replace it with anything else.’

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Stephen Morris" and "Pilotage" are two of Nevil Shute's first attempts at novels, and were not published until after his death. The two manuscripts were edited very lightly and published together as a single narrative the following year. Considering that these were first novels, they are surprisingly good. There's some roughness in the characters' development and dialog, and the background information of time and place are sketchy. But that's to be expected in an early work.

As I read this one I realized that all of Nevil Shute's books that I've read so far have male protagonists with the exception of "A Town Like Alice". Some authors write males better than females, or vice versa. I would almost conclude that about Shute, but "A Town Like Alice" has such a great female lead that it proves he could write either gender equally well. What I also noticed with this book was that his men were all sensitive souls, by which I mean that we are privy to their inner thoughts and feelings. They are men of action of course, sailing boats and flying planes, fighting battles, etc., but we also see that they get depressed when disappointed in love or thwarted by lack of fortune, angry at slights to friends, and so on. They may be strong, silent types, but the reader is allowed to see the interior life behind the manly facade.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set right after WWI in England with the financial slump after the war. I enjoyed just the right touch of mathematics in the book about the beginnings of aeroplane design and flying, as well as some excellent human interest (both friendships and romance) and some lovely descriptions of the countryside and the coast. The second part of the book 'Pilotage' dealt with sailing and boats as well as flying, with most of the same characters as in the first half, and again a proper and interesting proportion of mathematics, but not too much. The ending was tense and very well executed. Nevil Shute's first book(s). I'll read more.

[Vikas Datta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific adventures stories about the early days of aviation, and how the question of livelihood can affect romance.. right from his first works, Mr Shute showed his calibre that makes him figure among the first ranks of gifted story-tellers....

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two short, early novels, published after Shute's death. I'm glad they were; the style and plot devices he'd use for the rest of his career are already in place, not yet refined but working well. Best bit: a passage early on that perfectly evokes final exams at Oxford in very few words.

[Rebecca Alcazaze · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I imagine that people who are really exited by aviation and aeronautics would love this.

Turns out I’m not particularly excited about aviation and aeronautics!

[Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is two stories with overlapping characters combined into one book. Some of the details were a bit tedious for me, as I am not familiar enough with early aviation to understand the descriptions, but the plot was original and at times suspenseful.

I plan to continue working my way through Mr. Shute’s books.

[Larry Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty tedious. I think I know why Shute didn't publish it during his own life. It could have been a decent story, but was very uneven. And, it dragged. Shute is one of my favorite authors, and this book is not up to his standards. As I said, he kept it buried during his lifetime.


So, at the beginning, young Stephen Morris has lost his job in rubber and decides he can't afford to marry Helen Riley. So he breaks off their engagement. Then, since his real passion had been flying—he'd been a pilot in WWI—he hooks up with a small "commercial" flying outfit run by Helen Riley's cousin, Capt. Malcolm Riley, who was a sort of famous flier in the war. Riley and his partner, Stenning, hang out around vacation spots and take people on joy rides. It's the early days of aviation, and people find it exciting. It's also the early 1920s, so people still have some extra cash, the depression being some 6 or 8 years in the future, and no one knew it was coming in 1923 when this book came out.

Well, things go along for a while, but business falls off and Riley and Stenning decide to throw in the towel. As a result, poor Morris is out of a job again. But he hooks on with a guy who designs planes. Morris, having earned a degree in Mathematics at Oxford, could help out on the design side of things, although C.G.H Rawdon can't afford to hire him to work in the office. So, they agree that Morris will work for free in the office for a while (which is to say, being an unpaid intern is not a new thing) and also be on hand to do some piloting when the need arises.

Well, things drag on, but I've set the scene, so to speak. Generally, this book is packaged with a second novella, Pilotage. But I was afraid that Pilotage might be similarly deadly, so moved on to something else. Sometime in the new year, I'll give Pilotage a "fly".

[Kevin Findley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 1961 Lancer Books edition (73-435). It has 224 pages. Cover price was 60 cents.

In the Foreward, Thayer Hobson details how the two stories were some of Nevil Shute's first attempts at writing. They were not published prior to his death in 1960 however. Stephen Morris and Pilotage are a bit unwieldy compared to Slide Rule and other, later works but everything that made Shute one of the most well-read and popular authors of his day is still in full evidence.

Snag a copy where you can. Despite a few flaws in pacing, I think the tales are quite good and worth your time.

10 Sep 19 re-read: No change in my review. A good introduction for readers who may be starting with Shute's books.

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another interesting story of the early days in commercial aviation. Shute spins two back to back stories of young men trying to make their way in the world so as to be worthy of marrying their girls both of whom come from wealth. Entertaining

[David A. Barlitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Business, danger, romance, and suspense!

Typical Nevil Shute got little bit of something for everybody. You get the technical aspects of the planes and ships, plus how to make the marriage work.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I am hazily aware that Jo Walton is a fan of Shute, and I was curious to see what I would find -- and I ended up liking them quite a bit, although in some ways they are not really my thing. The book is two novellas, connected by the title character of Stephen Morris -- the first is about him finding his proper job after graduating from Oxford and has tons of fascinating details about the aviation industry in Britain right after WWI, when there was a general agreement that eventually commercial aviation would be a big deal, but right in the moment there weren't a lot of jobs in it. The second is about Peter Denison, who loves sailing the same way Morris loves aviation, and has a similar vibe of needing to find some way to combine his vocation & his avocation in order to have a meaningful life. There's a touching romance plot in both books, but that's not where the focus is, and the emotions of the book are weirdly sideways from the story and writing both -- where Shute shines is in describing the passion of his characters for their particular technology; that part had a very similar joy to some parts of old-school hard science fiction. Which makes sense -- these are science fiction in the literal sense, fiction about applied science, and (as I discovered) there was some speculation here -- "what if we could invent trans-atlantic airmail" was, when these were written in 1922-1923, a speculative idea, not a recounting of something that had already happened!

I doubt I will go back to this book, but I will definitely read more Shute.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this rather technical book, as I do all of Nevil Shute's books. I did turn around and read it a second time though, because there are so many characters in this story I wanted to explore them more. When I finished the book the first time, I was a bit confused about who's who and what the relationships were, but the second time through I picked up more details and could piece it together much better. I've since learned this book was originally written as two separate stories, but they do work together combined very well, in my opinion. By the end of all of Nevil's books, it always make me feel like the characters are old friends of mine!

[Cricket Muse]

Although packaged with Pilotage, Stephen Morris stands on its own—albeit on shaky legs. Found after Nevil Shute’s passing, the story is an early unfinished work, and it unfortunately shows. There is still the blend of technical details and a human interest story, yet there is an imbalance between the two, creating some disharmony in Shute’s usual storytelling.
A bit more fleshing out, and a stronger ending, one that isn’t so rushed, would round up Stephen Morris as a much better read.

[Jess JK · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable early work of Shute's. Not really his best plot-wise, but good escapism. It did make me want to be a pilot in the 20's.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can tell this is an early pair of Shutes. The narrative connections aren’t all there. But enjoyable nevertheless.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stephen Morris, combined with Pilotage, has significant biographical content, and includes some real characters from his early life. It has a nice twist at the end.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set shortly after WW1 an interesting tale about life working in a decling aviation. It was strange to read about a time when passenger planes were still a thing of the future. A good first novel.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good book. I love Nevil Shute’s books!

[Graeme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of my “Complete works of Neville Shute”. Good read. I’m leaving the complete works on, so I can dip in and out if them.

[Teaspoon Stories · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel by Shute comes with huge emotional heft for me, because my copy used to belong to my brother who was himself a pilot killed in a light aircraft accident eight years ago. It’s taken me quite a few years to gird myself to reading it.

My mother had tracked the novel down specially for my brother. She was herself a big Nevil Shute fan and being married to an aero engineer (my father) she particularly admired Shute’s aviation-themed writing.

Her father (my grandfather) had worked in the 1930s at de Havilland’s in Hatfield (where Shute himself had worked before moving to Vickers). And both my brother-in-law and my nephew now work in R&D in the aero industry. So I guess you could say we have avionics in our blood!

The novel’s eponymous Stephen Morris is a twenty-something pilot struggling to make his way professionally in the pioneering field of aviation in the wake of WW1. It’s a Wild West of technical innovation, creative brilliance, soaring ambition and commercial failure.

As well as his professional struggles, Stephen is also struggling emotionally following the break-up with his fiancée, Helen, and the death of his fellow flier, Malcolm Riley.

The fatal accident that kills Malcolm, a freelance test-pilot flying a light aircraft over to Belgium for a competition, made me sick at heart. And the confusion following Malcolm’s death, the awfulness of sorting through the chaotic fragments of a young man’s brief life, was too close to comfort for me. Shute’s description of the crash and its aftermath is all the more poignant because his language is so understated and controlled. It made me very conscious that he’d clearly experienced these wretched situations himself.

Flight in the novel is both literal - the high-risk work of the test-pilots, Stephen’s epic nighttime race across England by fast car - as well as metaphorical (flight as the response to emotional chaos: “There was nothing like keeping on the move till you had outdistanced your troubles”).

Similarly, Shute and Morris (perhaps one and the same, really?) are fascinated by the science and mathematics of aircraft design as a metaphor of pure endeavour, unsullied by fallible human emotion: “[Aircraft design] was a clean, healthy, unemotional thing; something that lasted, was permanent. The strength of the wings, the delicate, beautiful strength.”

Thirty years before Shute wrote his autobiography “Slide Rule”, this essential piece of draftsman’s kit is already taking on an almost spiritual quality in Stephen Morris’s life: “He worked a little on the slide-rule. That gave a longeron of .27 sq.inch less sectional area. That would, if the same ratio were carried on throughout the structure, give a fuselage - slide-rule again - something like forty pounds, thirty-eight pounds lighter.”

It’s this fusion of objectivity and emotion, science and spirituality, fact and fiction, that, for me, perfectly encapsulates Nevil Shute’s attractive and distinctive writing style.

Here’s just one random example to end with - a paragraph as beautifully turned as a finely engineered component:

“The men had finished work upon the tail-skid and were brewing tea over a blow-lamp preparatory to knocking-off. Morris examined the skid critically. They hadn’t made a bad job of it.”

It has a lovely splash of local colour (fitters don’t use a kettle); authentic language (in an industrial workshop you “knock-off” rather than “clock-off”); and it includes Shute’s own favourite preoccupation of critical examination. But best of all is that glorious final understatement - brief, to the point and perfectly apt. Stiff upper lip yet full of deeper meaning. How Shute is that!

[Gerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen Morris was Nevil Shute's first literary effort in the form of a work of fiction. It is actually described as a novella due to its relatively short length of just over 100 pages. However, it is more accurately the first half of duel novellae, in that it is continued in the companion short novel called Pilotage.

Stephen Morris, the character, in Stephen Morris the novella is young man who came out of World War I as quite a good pilot and who wants to break into the technical part of the aviation industry which is just beyond its infancy in the very early 1920's. Stephen has had to take a job in the rubber industry. Although it is not what he wants, it will be sufficient to support a family, so he has asked his girl to marry him. Very shortly thereafter, this job folds, and he is out of work. With no prospects for employment, he backs out of the plan to marry.

Every aspect of the aviation industry is struggling mightily just to remain in business. They continue to struggle in reach what they are sure will be a bright future not too many years down the road. Stephen soon lucks into some employment as a 3rd pilot in a aeroplane joy-riding concern. The future is not very bright with this, but he lucks into a contact with a design company. Sure that he can prove his worth, he talks his way into an unpaid position for several months. He is very hopeful he will soon become a regular employee and then be able to again ask his girl to marry him.

This book was published in 1923, and is a most interesting look at the status of the nascent aviation industry at that time. It is also gives a good view of the beginning of Nevil Shute's earliest literary effort in fiction. I enjoyed it fairly well. It does end quite abruptly, but it proceeds immediately into its follow up novella - Pilotage - with which it is published as a single volume.

[Scilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

These two novellas are about young pilots in the early days of flying and young love. Stephen Morris breaks his engagement with Helen, the love of his life because he needs to get a job to support her. He joins a flying company, but it's not an easy way to make a good living. He meets Rawdon who is manufacturing planes, and joins his design team and becomes the test pilot. He thinks Helen has married someone else, but still dreams about her. In Pilotage, Denniston plans to go to China to work in his uncle's firm so he can afford to marry Sheila. However, Sheila says she will not go the China. In his disappointment, Denniston goes out in his sail boat. He is rammed by a large sailboat owned by Rawdon. There he meets Morris, and gets a job.

[Sybil Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared with many of his other books I found this somewhat dry and prodictable. The action was drawn out and the descriptions tedious. Having said all that I stuck with it and was rewarded by the final chapters of each story. This was his first book and it is perhapes difficult to assess in view of his later works.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a big aviation buff but I did enjoy reading this book about a young man, the titular Stephen Morris, who makes a risky career decision and ends up on the front lines of the burgeoning aviation industry in Great Britain. I think the only reason that I was able to stick with the book was that Shute doesn't go into a lot of mechanical details and has an interesting story supporting the book.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love Nevil Shute, but this one didn't really do much for me. It lacked his usual twist... it ended up being more of a set of bland love stories.

[Carlton Duff · Rating 3 out of 5]

So British in its super dry and understated tone, and would surely be a better read for someone keenly interested in commercial aviation after WW1.

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was among my late brother's books.