Product Description

This title includes an introduction by John Boyne. John Howard is determined to brighten up his old age by taking a fishing trip to France. However, during his stay the Nazis invade and he is forced to try to escape back to England with the two small children of some friends who are forced to stay behind in order to help the Allied war effort. As the conflict grows closer the roads become impassable and Howard also comes across five more children who need his help. He ends up leading this motley group of youngsters through the French countryside, constantly beset by danger yet heroically protecting his charges.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3173 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
Mr Shute not only writes vividly and excitingly of occupied France, but with a delightful understanding of children Sunday Times A brilliantly descriptive writer, a master of suspense Exhibits his talents at their provocative best New York Times That shattering, unaffected, literary style of his is wholly deceptive...is, in fact, masterly A small masterpiece...a book about frail but indomitable old age, simple kindness, childhood, and courage in dark confusing danger. It is not sentimental but prosaic and suspenseful on every page...it conjures up the country of the 1940's, and gently acclaims the value of ordinary decency in wicked times Remarkable books...I share a fierce personal regard for Nevil Shute

About the Author
Nevil Shute Norway was born on 17 January 1899 in Ealing, London. After attending the Dragon School and Shrewsbury School, he studied Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. He worked as an aeronautical engineer and published his first novel, Marazan, in 1926. In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they went on to have two daughters. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons. After the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived until his death on 12 January 1960. His most celebrated novels include Pied Piper (1942), No Highway (1948), A Town Like Alice (1950) and On the Beach (1957).

Customer Reviews

A triumph for the small man
I first read the Pied Piper at school. It is a classic Nevil Shute - a ordinary man, placed in an extraordinary situation and making the most of it.

The story concerns a retired businessman, who after the death of his son goes to the South of France in the early part of the war. The Germany army seems far away and he spends the time fishing. However as invading troups move South he decides to return home. He is asked to take a young brother and sister, these are just the first of a number of children he acquires as be tries to return to England.

Still Caught After All These Years!
I first read this book as a child when, identifying with the children who could have been my compeers, I saw the movie at least five times. I loved the book then, and I love it now. The story is simply told, from the point of view of an elderly Englishman, whom we first meet in his London club during the Blitz. Too exhausted to move to a shelter, he begins to tell his tale to a stranger, who has also decided to sit out the raid, while the Luftwaffe's incendiary bombs fall closer and closer. The old man's story unfolds slowly as tells of a fishing holiday in the Jura--the mountains that border France and Switzerland--in the early months of 1939. The story may, in fact, unfold a bit too slowly for some modern readers who have been exposed to the terse squibs that proliferate novels nowadays, but Nevil Shute is such a skillful storyteller that he draws the reader almost unawares into the narrative, rather in the manner of an expert angler reeling in his fish.

Even though I know the story well, I could not put the book down until the very end. I was, after all these years, inextricably hooked.

Great story....
I have just finished reading this book. I remember Nevil Shute from my school days. I thought I might find this book a bit old fashioned but gave it a go anyway. Obviously it is of its time but is a great story told in a classic way. The tension is built superbly throughout the book. Having three kids myself I was expecting the descriptions of the children and their behaviour to be weak. I was suprised at how believable it is though. He cleverly uses the children in the book and builds on the relationships between them. This is a great read and highly recommended.