To the professional eye of a wealthy London banker, the forlorn northern shipyard town of Sharples is at the end of the road. But then Henry Warren meets the woman whose faith in the town's industry and people compels him to give Sharples a chance to pull itself up by its bootstraps.
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To the professional eye of a wealthy London banker, the forlorn northern shipyard town of Sharples is at the end of the road. But then Henry Warren meets the woman whose faith in the town's industry and people compels him to give Sharples a chance to pull itself up by its bootstraps.
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Seller's Description:
Good to Very Good condition, edges slightly grubby, interior clean and bright, appears unread. This book is in stock now, in our UK premises. Photos of our books are available on request (the pictures you see on Alibris are NOT our own).
Written two generations ago and about the depression of the 1930s, nevertheless this is a story that is alive, poignant and so appropriate for our times. And full of hope for the human race. Absolutely one to read now (which is why I bought a copy for my son who has been made redundant in New York, poor soul).
An English banker, working ruthlessly to save his business in the depression, finds his life - especially his personal life - crumbling into pointless ruin. An accident thrusts him into the life of people much more vulnerable than himself: a whole town on the skids - the sort of town that he might have helped (or, in these times, refused to help) with corporate loans.
He finds his salvation, and love, in breaking all the rules of his profession, but using all of his skill and contacts, to get the town and its shipbuilding works going again.
As always with Nevil Shute, this is a piece of superb, compelling story-telling.(with such upright, but believable characters!). Nevil Shute, before he was a hugely popular novelist, was the founder and Chief Executive of an aircraft manufacturing company in the days when such a thing could be founded by one man obsessed with aeroplanes. No wonder he can write about business with accuracy, conviction and an extraordinary sense of the romance of it all.
(One little note of regret - remembering that this book is written by a man of an earlier age. There are some remarks that in our age would be unacceptably racist - mild, but nonetheless offensive. You have to forgive them - they would have passed quite unnoticed in the age in which this book was wriiten.)
Read it, and have hope for the future. Yes we can.
TMuldoon
Feb 1, 2008
A real feel-good story.
One of Nevil Shute's best--the story of a man who risks his personal and professional reputation to bring back hope and prosperity to a town fallen into permanent "hard times" by the closure of its ship yard, at the same time redeeming his own life. A real feel-good story.
