Ordeal

I loved this book the first two times I read it, but reading it now as we start to emerge from the pandemic, was even more interesting. Peter and Joan Corbett and their three kids (6, 3, and 1, if I remember correctly) live in Southampton in 1939 when the UK goes to war with an unnamed country that......more

I can not believe that no one thought to collect rainwater!......more

I was stumped for a while at the beginning when reading this book. It tells of an enemy suddenly attacking and bombing Britain. These descriptions were good, but it left me asking myself if I’d missed something in my early life and understanding of the war. Then the penny dropped. Shute had written......more

Neil Shute's great appeal is the way he writes about how ordinary, unexceptional people cope in a crisis. This novel was written two years before the onset of the Second World War, but he predicts how an average family called the Corbetts might behave when their city of Southampton experiences its f......more

This is the second Nevil Shute book I've read. Loved the setting of WW2 bombing in Great Britain and the impact the bombing had on families. It wasn't something that I'd thought about before so again the 2nd Nevil Shute book is memorable and impacting. I've looking forward to reading another of his b......more