82-616: The Chequer Board is a novel by Nevil Shute , first published in the United Kingdom in 1947 by William Heinemann Ltd . The novel deals with the question of racism within the US forces during World War II and portrays black characters with sympathy and support. Shute began writing The Chequer Board in September 1945 and completed it in February 1946. "This novel may shock you, but not for any of
164-569: A Picturehouse cinema. Local group Pitshanger Pictures shows classic movies in St Barnabas Millennium Hall on Pitshanger Lane. Ealing has a theatre on Mattock Lane, The Questors Theatre . Regarded by many as Ealing's premier architectural work, St Peter's Church, Ealing is on Mount Park Road north of central Ealing. The ancient parish church of Ealing is St Mary's , in St Mary's Road. Standing near Charlbury Grove, Ealing Abbey
246-552: A shopping centre . Most of Ealing, including the commercial district, Ealing Broadway, South Ealing, Ealing Common , Montpelier , Pitshanger and most of Hanger Hill fall under the W5 postcode . Areas to the north-west of the town centre such as Argyle Road and West Ealing fall under W13 instead. West Twyford north-east of the town centre, near Hanger Hill, falls under the NW10 postcode area. The population of Ealing (including Northfields )
328-457: A CBS made-for-television movie, in 1990; On the Beach in 1959 and again in 2000 as a two-part miniseries; and No Highway in 1951. A Town Like Alice was adapted into a film in 1956, serialised for Australian television in 1981, and also broadcast on BBC Radio 2 in 1997 starring Jason Connery , Becky Hindley , Bernard Hepton and Virginia McKenna . Shute's 1952 novel The Far Country
410-521: A German fighter in the Second World War. Turner decides to use his remaining time to trace the men he got to know while recovering in hospital. The men were: As the story unfolds, the reader learns that charges against Lesurier were dropped after an Army investigation and that he later returned to the English town near which he was stationed during the war. He marries the girl he was courting and becomes
492-647: A Spanish bar hostess in the Balkans ( Ruined City ) or a brilliant but unworldly boffin ( No Highway ). His novels are in three main clusters: early pre-war flying adventures; Second World War tales; and stories set in Australia. Another recurrent theme is the bridging of social barriers such as class ( Lonely Road and Landfall ), race ( The Chequer Board ), or religion ( Round the Bend ). The Australian novels are individual hymns to that country, with subtle disparagement of
574-421: A capacity of 3 million imperial gallons (14,000 m ), was erected north of Hill Crest Road, Hanger Hill, in 1888 and a neighbouring reservoir for 50 million imperial gallons (230,000 m ) was constructed c. 1889 . This supply of good water helped to make Ealing more attractive than ever. Mount Castle Tower was also known as Hanger Hill Tower, and as such it was a vital viewing point for
656-515: A correspondence developed. The portions of the book that take place in Burma were based on Shute's own experiences there during World War II . From the dust-jacket: "It was very difficult to feel these cultured brown girls, all speaking excellent English...were really any different from the girls at home." He also noted during the war the "popularity of American Negroes in England and the superior quality of
738-539: A detailed account of the development of the two airships in his 1954 autobiographical work, Slide Rule: Autobiography of an Engineer . When he started, he wrote that he was shocked to find that before building the R38 the civil servants concerned '"had made no attempt to calculate the aerodynamic forces acting on the ship"' but had just copied the size of girders in German airships. The calculations for just one transverse frame of
820-404: A draughtsman. Brent is acquitted of murder but served six months for manslaughter after successfully being acquitted at a court-martial. He is later found living close to Lesurier and working as a meat vendor. Morgan relocates to Burma and becomes a successful businessman, married into a strong local community. Turner is contented by the thought that each man, who had helped with his recovery after
902-595: A fair was held on the green in 1822, when William Cobbett chronicled he was diverted by crowds of Cockneys headed there. The fair, of unknown origin, was held from 24 to 26 June until suppressed in 1880. The manor included Old Brentford and its extensive Thames fisheries, and in 1423 tenants of Ealing manor rented three fisheries in the Thames. In 1257 the king ordered the Bishop whoever it may be from time to time (sede vacante) to provide 8,000-10,000 lampreys and other fish for owning
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#1732858965632984-575: A few miles per day, frequent overnight stops were needed. To satisfy this demand a large number of inns were situated along the Uxbridge Road , where horses could be changed and travellers refresh themselves, prompting its favour by highwaymen . Stops in Ealing included The Feathers, The Bell, The Green Man and The Old Hats. At one point in history there were two pubs called the Old Hat(s) either side of one of
1066-619: A hobby, driving a white Jaguar XK140 . Some of this experience found its way into his book On the Beach . Shute died in Melbourne in 1960 after a stroke. Norway Road and Nevil Shute Road at Portsmouth Airport, Hampshire were both named after him. Shute Avenue in Berwick, Victoria was named after him, when the farm used for filming the 1959 film On the Beach was subdivided for housing. The public library in Alice Springs , Northern Territory
1148-532: A house at Castlebar. Soon, more affluent Londoners followed but with the intention of taking up a permanent residence which was conveniently close to London. The only British prime minister to be assassinated, Spencer Perceval , made his home at Elm House. Up until that point, Ealing was mostly made up of open countryside and fields where, as in previous centuries, the main occupation was farming. As London grew in size, more food and materials went in and more finished goods came out. Since dray horses can only haul loads
1230-512: A little ship that he would be the senior naval officer and "have to do something". So he ended up in the Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development . There he was a head of engineering, working on secret weapons such as Panjandrum , a job that appealed to the engineer in him. He also developed the Rocket Spear , an anti-submarine missile with a fluted cast iron head. After the first U-boat
1312-462: A pound." Several of Shute's novels explored the boundary between accepted science and rational belief, on the one hand, and mystical or paranormal possibilities, including reincarnation , on the other hand. Shute did this by including elements of fantasy and science fiction in novels that were considered mainstream. They included Buddhist astrology and folk prophecy in The Chequer Board ;
1394-461: A remake of the classic film, was produced by Ealing Studios; some locations in Ealing can be seen in this film. Most recently, Ealing Studios was the set for the famous Downton Abbey historical television series, of which the below stairs and servant's hall were filmed there. On 16 March 2015, the workplace received a visit from the Duchess of Cambridge to observe current productions, as well as meet
1476-635: A teenager and attended St. Anne's Convent school in Little Ealing Lane. Brand New Heavies core members (drummer Jan Kincaid, guitarist Simon Bartholomew and bassist Andrew Levy) all hail from Ealing, where they formed the group in 1985. An August 2013 article in the Huffington Post claimed that Ealing could claim to be the home of rock music because of the catalyst effect of the Ealing Club on British musicians. Britney Spears filmed part of
1558-695: A third-class degree in engineering science. Shute was the son of Arthur Hamilton Norway, who became head of the Post Office in Ireland before the First World War and was based at the General Post Office, Dublin in 1916 at the time of the Easter Rising , and his wife Mary Louisa Gadsden. Shute himself was later commended for his role as a stretcher-bearer during the rising. His grandmother Georgina Norway
1640-401: Is now a significant commercial and retail centre with a developed night-time economy. Ealing has the characteristics of both leafy suburban and inner-city development. The Pitshanger neighbourhood and some others retain the lower density, greenery and architecture of suburban villages . Ealing's town centre is often referred to as Ealing Broadway , the name of both a railway interchange and
1722-548: Is taken from Stanza XLVIX of Edward FitzGerald 's Rubáiyát of Khayyám : 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays: Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays, And one by one back in the Closet lays. The initial idea for The Chequer Board came about when Shute came across the book A Rising Wind (1945) by the American civil rights campaigner Walter White . Shute contacted White and
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#17328589656321804-745: Is the Nevil Shute Memorial Library. In the Readers' List of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels of the 20th century, A Town Like Alice came in at number 17, Trustee from the Toolroom at 27, and On the Beach at 56. Ealing Ealing ( / ˈ iː l ɪ ŋ / ) is a district in West London , England, 7.5 miles (12.1 km) west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing . It
1886-458: Is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan . Ealing was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex . Until the urban expansion of London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was a rural village. Improvement in communications with London, culminating with the opening of the railway station in 1838, shifted
1968-410: The 1918 flu pandemic . An aeronautical engineer as well as a pilot, Shute began his engineering career with the de Havilland Aircraft Company . He used his pen-name as an author to protect his engineering career from any potentially adverse publicity in connection with his novels. Dissatisfied with the lack of opportunities for advancement, he took a position in 1924 with Vickers Ltd. , where he
2050-770: The Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) , which linked the Royal Greenwich Observatory with the Paris Observatory via a chain of trigonometric readings. This survey was led in England by General William Roy . Hanger Hill Tower was its northernmost observation point, and from it sightings were made to places such as St Ann's Hill in Chertsey , Banstead , Upper Norwood , and the Greenwich Observatory itself. The most important changes to Ealing occurred in
2132-682: The Ealing Jazz Club , opposite Ealing Broadway station. Other artists who performed at the club include Rod Stewart and Manfred Mann . The Jazz Club is now a nightclub called the Red Room . The Beatles alighted at West Ealing station (the old building) in March 1964 to complete the filming of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ at Edgehill Road in West Ealing. Dusty Springfield lived in Kent Gardens, West Ealing as
2214-764: The London Underground in London fare zone 3 . It is also served by five other tube stations at North Ealing , South Ealing , Hanger Lane , Northfields , Park Royal and Ealing Common . The Piccadilly line operates at Park Royal, North Ealing, Ealing Common, South Ealing and Northfields; the Central line at Ealing Broadway and Hanger Lane; and the District line at Ealing Broadway and Ealing Common. The stations at Ealing Broadway and West Ealing are served by National Rail operators Great Western Railway and TfL Rail . Early in
2296-849: The Lower Palaeolithic Age. The typical stone tool type of neanderthals, the Mousterian, is not found in south-east England, but Levallois type may be consistent with the hand axes found. These primitive hunters span a period of at least 300,000 years in Britain. Of the Iron Age , Milne lists six Carthaginian and pre-Roman bronze coins from Middlesex: Ashford and Ealing (Carthage coins); Edmonton (Seleucid (2), Rhegium, Bithynia coins). These are not so significant as for similar and more plentiful finds from Dorset , and Milne suggests that some represent parts of imported bronze scrap. The Church of St. Mary's ,
2378-511: The horse chestnut trees on Ealing Common and designed Ealing Town Hall , both the present one and the older structure which is now a bank (on the Mall). He even oversaw the purchase of the Walpole estate grounds and its conversion into a leisure garden for the general public to enjoy and promenade around on Sundays. In 1901, Ealing Urban District was incorporated as a municipal borough , Walpole Park
2460-505: The "finest private school in England" and had many famous pupils in the 19th century such as William S. Gilbert , composer and impresario, and Cardinal Newman – since 2019 recognised as a saint. As the zone became built-up, the school declined and closed in April 1908. The earliest maps of just the parish of Ealing survive from the 18th century; John Speed and others having made maps of Middlesex , more than two centuries before. At Ealing
2542-635: The 1850s, with improved travel (the Great Western Railway and two branches of the Grand Union Canal ), villages began to grow into towns and merged into unbroken residential areas. At this time Ealing began to be called the "Queen of the Suburbs". Mount Castle Tower, an Elizabethan structure which stood at the top of Hanger Hill, was used as a tea-stop in the 19th century. It was demolished to make way for Fox's Reservoir in 1881. This reservoir, with
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2624-458: The 19th century. The building of the Great Western Railway in the 1830s, part of which passed through the centre of Ealing, led to the opening of a railway station on the Broadway in 1879, originally called Haven Green. In the next few decades, much of Ealing was rebuilt, predominantly semi-detached housing designed for the rising middle-class. Gas mains were laid and an electricity generating station
2706-737: The 21st century Transport for London (TFL) planned to reintroduce an electric tram line along the Uxbridge Road (the West London Tram scheme), but this was abandoned in August 2007 in the face of fierce local opposition. Ealing Broadway and West Ealing stations became part of the Elizabeth line in 2022. A total of 18 buses (including night buses) serve Ealing Broadway. Ealing has a developed night-time economy backed by numerous pubs and restaurants on The Mall, The Broadway and New Broadway (forming part of
2788-641: The A406 North Circular Road, London bisects the east of it. The nascent M4 motorway also runs almost adjacent to the south. It is less than two miles from the Tideway (London's upper estuary of the Thames) at the local apex of Kew Bridge that links to the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames . Ealing has parks and open spaces, such as Ealing Common , Walpole , Lammas, Cleveland, Hanger Hill, Montpelier, and Pitshanger Parks. The River Brent flows through
2870-605: The Burmese people", both of which are central to the book's story. Shute drew on the outbreak of racial violence in 1943 involving American soldiers stationed in the village of Bamber Bridge , Lancashire, in Northern England. Shute was concerned that sales of the book in the United States would be reduced because of the book's open-minded handling of racial issues; as it turned out, sales soared. Shute and his wife travelled around
2952-762: The Ealing United Synagogue (Orthodox), which celebrated its centenary in November 2019, and the Ealing Liberal Synagogue, which was founded in 1943. In surrounding suburbs, there are two mosques in Acton, one in West Ealing, and two in Southall. There are large Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities in Southall. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones famously first met Brian Jones in 1962 at
3034-484: The R100 and R101 as a primary illustration of his thesis that governments are usually incompetent managers of technology projects. In 1931, with the cancellation of the R100 project, Shute teamed up with the talented de Havilland-trained designer A. Hessell Tiltman to found the aircraft construction company Airspeed Ltd . A site was available in a former trolleybus garage on Piccadilly, York . Despite setbacks, including
3116-433: The R100 could take two or three months, and the solution '"almost amounted to a religious experience." But later he wrote that '"the disaster was the product of the system rather than the men at Cardington"; the one thing that was proved is that "government officials are totally ineffective in engineering development" and any weapons (they develop) will be bad weapons. The R101 made one short test flight in perfect weather, and
3198-525: The RNVR. Shute's first novel, Stephen Morris , was written in 1923, but not published until 1961 (with its 1924 sequel, Pilotage ). His first published novel was Marazan , which came out in 1926. After that he averaged one novel every two years until the 1950s, with the exception of a six-year hiatus while he was establishing his own aircraft construction company, Airspeed Ltd. Sales of his books grew slowly with each novel, but he became much better known after
3280-611: The U.S. on Greyhound buses to "get in touch with the man on the street," finding the experience refreshing. Afterwards he wrote "Sincerity is the first attribute for making money in the business of writing novels." Nevil Shute Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 1899 – 12 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from inferences by his employers (Vickers) or from fellow engineers that he
3362-474: The amalgamation of the surrounding municipal boroughs in 1965, Ealing Town Hall became the administrative centre for the new London Borough of Ealing . Today, this also includes its offices at Perceval House just next to it. Later in 1984, the Ealing Broadway Centre was completed which includes a shopping centre and a town square . Ealing is in the heart of west London. A relatively narrow section of
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3444-580: The cast and crew of the series stated. For 14 years, Ealing lacked any cinema houses, after the closure of the Ealing Empire in 2008. 2022 saw the opening of the Ealing Project, a multi-functional community space centred around a cinema. Renovation began on the New Broadway street cinema in late 2012. Work is underway as of Spring 2021 for 'Filmworks', an Art Deco apartment-and-cinema block featuring
3526-476: The centre of the parish. River Long field and adjoining closes at West Ealing contained 1,008 fruit trees in 1767, including 850 apple trees, 63 plum, and 63 cherry. Ealing demesne in 1318 had a windmill, which was rebuilt in 1363–4. This was destroyed in or before 1409 and may have been repaired by 1431, when it was again broken. Great Ealing School was founded in 1698 by the Church of St Mary's. This became
3608-455: The centre of the parish. This road was later renamed as Uxbridge Road . The well-to-do of London began to see Ealing as a place to escape from the smoke and smells. In 1800 the architect John Soane bought Payton Place and renamed it Pitzhanger Manor, not to live but just for somewhere green and pleasant, where he could entertain his friends and guests. Soon afterward, in 1801, the Duke of Kent bought
3690-624: The effective use of a planchette in No Highway; a messiah figure in Round the Bend ; reincarnation, science fiction, and Aboriginal psychic powers in In the Wet. Twenty-four of his novels and novellas have been published. Many of his books have been adapted for the screen, including Lonely Road in 1936; Landfall: A Channel Story in 1949; Pied Piper in 1942 and again in 1959, and also as Crossing to Freedom,
3772-416: The extensive 28 acres (110,000 m ) grounds on which it stands, was sold to the council in 1901 by Sir Spencer Walpole , which had been bought by his father the Rt. Hon. Spencer Horatio Walpole and thus became Walpole Park . During the Victorian period, Ealing became a town. This meant that good, well-metalled roads had to be built, and schools and public buildings erected. To protect public health,
3854-401: The first time in my life I saw how people live in an English-speaking country outside England." Although he intended to remain in Australia, he did not apply for Australian citizenship , which was at that time a mere formality because he was a British citizen . In the 1950s and 1960s he was one of the world's best-selling novelists. Between 1956 and 1958 in Australia, he took up car racing as
3936-723: The greater Uxbridge Road ). Ealing is best known for its film studios, which are the oldest in the world and are known especially for the Ealing comedies , including Kind Hearts and Coronets , Passport to Pimlico , The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob . The studios were taken over by the BBC in 1955, with one consequence being that Ealing locations appeared in television programmes including Doctor Who (notably within an iconic 1970 sequence in which deadly shop mannequins menaced local residents) to Monty Python's Flying Circus . Most recently, these studios have again been used for making films, including Notting Hill and The Importance of Being Earnest . St Trinian's ,
4018-418: The honest artisans and their social integrity and contributions to society more than the contributions of the upper classes. Aviation and engineering provide the backdrop for many of Shute's novels. He identified how engineering, science, and design could improve human life and more than once used the anonymous epigram, "It has been said an engineer is a man who can do for ten shillings what any fool can do for
4100-426: The innovation of developing a hydraulic retractable undercarriage for the Airspeed Courier , and his work on R100, Shute was made a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society . On 7 March 1931, Shute married Frances Mary Heaton, a 28-year-old medical practitioner. They had two daughters, (Heather) Felicity and Shirley. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Shute was a rising novelist. Even as war seemed imminent he
4182-401: The latter. The largest ethnic group in the 2011 census for the Ealing Broadway ward was White British, at 45%. The second largest was Other White, at 21%. The most spoken foreign language was Polish , followed by French and Japanese . The nearby Hanger Hill ward has the city's largest Japanese community. Ealing is served by Ealing Broadway station on the Great Western Main Line and
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#17328589656324264-414: The local economy to market garden supply and eventually to suburban development. By 1902 Ealing had become known as the "Queen of the Suburbs" due to its greenery, and because it was halfway between city and country. As part of the growth of London in the 20th century, Ealing significantly expanded and increased in population. It became a municipal borough in 1901 and part of Greater London in 1965. It
4346-448: The manor, impliedly per year, which shows the extent of the local catch. With the exception of driving animals into London on foot, the transport of heavy goods tended be restricted to those times when the non-metalled roads were passable due to dry weather. With the passing of the Toll Road Act, this highway was gravelled and so the old Oxford Road became an increasingly busy and important thoroughfare running from east to west through
4428-765: The manuscript incomplete. According to Dan Telfair in the foreword of the 2002 edition, some of the themes in The Seafarers and Blind Understanding were used in Shute's 1955 novel Requiem for a Wren . In 1948, Shute flew his own Percival Proctor aeroplane to Australia and back, accompanied by the writer James Riddell , who published a book, Flight of Fancy, based on the trip, in 1950. On his return, concerned about what he saw as he "felt oppressed by British taxation", he decided that he and his family would move to Australia. In 1950, he settled with his wife and two daughters on farmland at Langwarrin , south-east of Melbourne . Remembering his 1930 trip to Canada and his decision to immigrate to Australia, he wrote, in 1954, "For
4510-407: The many toll gates on the Uxbridge Road in West Ealing. Following the removal of the toll gate the more Westernmost pub was renamed The Halfway House. As London developed, the area became predominantly market gardens which required a greater proportion of workers as it was more labour-intensive. Ealing Grove School was established in 1834, integrating both academic and agricultural education. In
4592-409: The mores of the United States ( Beyond the Black Stump ) and overt antipathy towards the post-World War II socialist government of Shute's native Britain ( The Far Country and In the Wet ). Shute's heroes tended to be like himself: middle-class solicitors, doctors, accountants, bank managers, and engineers—generally university graduates. However (as in Trustee from the Toolroom ), Shute valued
4674-406: The music video for her song " Criminal " at The Corner Shop, 24 The Avenue. Two members of the punk band Zatopeks grew up in Ealing, and the group frequently makes nostalgic or ironic references to the borough in its lyrics. Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience was born there in 1947. White Lies are also from Ealing. Ealing is home to Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club . Due to
4756-399: The nearby football teams, Brentford Football Club and Queens Park Rangers , it long lacked its own. Since late 2008, Ealing Town Football Club has been registered with the Football Association and competes. Other football clubs such Old Actonians youth FC, Pitshanger youth FC and Non-League football club Hanwell Town F.C. play in local leagues. Gaelic Games have a prominent role in
4838-425: The needs of Britain's empire. The government-funded but privately developed R100 made a successful 1930 round trip to Canada . While in Canada it made trips from Montreal to Ottawa , Toronto, and Niagara Falls . The fatal 1930 crash near Beauvais , France, of its government-developed counterpart R101 ended British interest in dirigibles . The R100 was immediately grounded and subsequently scrapped. Shute gives
4920-403: The newly created Board of Health for Ealing commissioned London's first modern drainage and sewage systems here. Just as importantly, drinking fountains providing wholesome and safe water were erected by public prescription. Ealing Broadway became a major shopping centre. The man responsible for much of all this was Charles Jones , Borough Surveyor from 1863 to 1913. He directed the planting of
5002-641: The north, Baldswells at Drayton, Abyndons and Denys at Ealing village, and Sergeaunts at Old Brentford. It is likely that there had once been 32 copyhold tenements, including at least 19 virgates of 20 rateable acres and 9 half virgates. When created the copyhold land amounted to not more than 540 acres (2.2 km ), a total increased before 1423 by land at Castlebar Hill. Ealing had an orchard in 1540 and others in 1577–8 and 1584. Numbers increased, as were orchards often taken out of open fields, by 1616 in Crowchmans field, in 1680–1 in Popes field, and in 1738 in Little North field. Some lay as far north as
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#17328589656325084-507: The other original London suburbs. In the 1900s and 1910s, the Brentham Garden Suburb was built. During the interwar period several garden estates, said to be one of the best examples of classic suburbia in mock Tudor style, were built near Hanger Lane . Hanger Hill Garden Village adjoining is likewise a conservation area . In the 1930s Ealing Village's mid-rise, green-setting apartment blocks were built, today Grade II (initial, mainstream) category-listed and having gated grounds. With
5166-411: The parish church's priest for centuries fell to be appointed by the Bishop of London , earliest known to be so in c. 1127 , when he gave the great tithes to Canon Henry for keeping St. Paul's cathedral school. The church required frequent repair in the 1650s and was so ruinous in about 1675 that services were held elsewhere for several years. Worshippers moved to a wooden tabernacle in 1726 and
5248-405: The plane crash, had succeeded in making a good life in his own way. The novel ends with what will be his last visit to his medical specialist. Underlying the novel is the Buddhist belief in reincarnation and redemption. Despite his shady past, it is indicated that Turner, through his attempts to help his fellow patients and his acceptance of his death, has moved closer to Nirvana. The book's title
5330-423: The publication of his third to last book, On the Beach , in 1957. Shute's novels are written in a simple, highly readable style, with clearly delineated plot lines. Where there is a romantic element, sex is referred to only obliquely. Many of the stories are introduced by a narrator who is not a character in the story. The most common theme in Shute's novels is the dignity of work , spanning all classes, whether
5412-555: The steeple fell in 1729, destroying the church, before its rebuilding. In the 12th century Ealing was amid a fields- and villages-punctuated forest covering most of the county from the southwest to the north of the City of London . The earliest surviving English census is that for Ealing in January 1599. This list was a tally of all 85 households in Ealing village giving the names of the inhabitants, together with their ages, relationships and occupations. It survives in manuscript form at The National Archives ( piece E 163/24/35 ), and
5494-424: The surrounding streets. It was of this area centred around Mount Park Road that Nikolaus Pevsner remarks as ”epitomising Ealing's reputation as 'Queen of the Suburbs'..” In a very short time, Ealing had become a modern and fashionable country town, free of the grime, soot and smells of industrialised London, and yet only minutes away from it by modern transport. The Borough Surveyor, Charles Jones, first re-used
5576-480: The term in the preface of his book Ealing from Village to Corporate Town of 1902, already used for Surbiton and Richmond , stressing his view that it was already recognised as of having such an identity. The fairly ornate, many-roomed houses set in "sylvan beauty and floriculture" (civic trees and gardens) stood out to Jones. Mount Park Road and side roads keep much of the original character. Some neighbourhoods have resisted conversions into bed-sits, unlike many of
5658-411: The usual problems of a new business, Airspeed Limited eventually gained recognition when its Envoy aircraft was chosen for the King's Flight . With the approach of the Second World War , a military version of the Envoy was developed, to be called the Airspeed Oxford . The Oxford became the standard advanced multi-engined trainer for the RAF and British Commonwealth, with over 8,500 being built. For
5740-405: The usual reasons. The clear vision of this swift-moving, heart-warming story will give you a glimpse of what the brotherhood of man might mean." —Dust-jacket, US edition, 1947 The story tells of the experiences of one John (Jackie) Turner, whom the doctors have given just one year to live as a result of a severe head injury sustained when the aircraft in which he was travelling was attacked by
5822-428: Was "not a serious person" or from potentially adverse publicity in connection with his novels, which included On the Beach and A Town Like Alice . Shute was born in Somerset Road, Ealing (which was then in Middlesex ), in the house described in his novel Trustee from the Toolroom . He was educated at the Dragon School , Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford ; he graduated from Oxford in 1922 with
5904-472: Was 85,014 at the 2011 census . Ealing's name derives from the Gillingas, a Saxon tribe mentioned in a charter issued by Æthelred of Mercia around the year 700. The Gillingas themselves took their name from a patriarch or chief called Gilla . The place-name appears as Yllinges around the year 1170 and as Elyng in 1553. Archaeology evinces parts of Ealing have been lived in by neanderthal humans –
5986-821: Was a novelist. Shute attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich , and trained as a gunner. He was unable to take up a commission in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War , which he believed was because of his stammer. He served as a soldier in the Suffolk Regiment , enlisting in the ranks in August 1918. He guarded the Isle of Grain in the Thames Estuary, and served in military funeral parties in Kent during
6068-461: Was built. Better transport links, including horse buses as well as trains, enabled people to more easily travel to work in London. All this, whilst living in what was still considered to be the countryside. Although much of the countryside was rapidly disappearing during this period of rapid expansion, parts of it were preserved as public parks, such as Lammas Park and Ealing Common . Pitzhanger Manor and
6150-399: Was filmed for television as six one-hour episodes in 1972, and as a two-part miniseries in 1987. Vintage Books reprinted all 23 of his books in 2009. Shute's final work was published more than 40 years after his death. The Seafarers was first drafted in 1946–47, rewritten, and then put aside. In 1948, Shute again rewrote it, changing the title to Blind Understanding, but he left
6232-457: Was founded by a community of Roman Catholic Benedictine monks in 1897. Twinned with the convent of St. Augustine's Priory , the large abbey is an example of a traditional, working monastery . There are over fifteen churches in the suburb of Ealing, including Our Lady Mother of the Church, a Polish Roman Catholic church in the Mall, near Ealing Broadway. There are two well-established synagogues,
6314-581: Was given an airworthiness certificate for her flight to India to meet the minister’s deadline. Norway thought it probable that a new outer cover for the R101 was taped on with rubber adhesive which reacted with the dope. His account is very critical of the R101 design and management team, and strongly hints that senior team members were complicit in concealing flaws in the airship's design and construction. In The Tender Ship, Manhattan Project engineer and Virginia Tech professor Arthur Squires used Shute's account of
6396-511: Was involved with the development of airships , working as Chief Calculator ( stress engineer ) on the R100 airship project for the Vickers subsidiary Airship Guarantee Company. In 1929, he was promoted to deputy chief engineer of the R100 project under Barnes Wallis . When Wallis left the project, Shute became the chief engineer. The R100 was a prototype for passenger-carrying airships that would serve
6478-430: Was opened and the first electric trams ran along the Uxbridge Road . As part of its permit to operate, the electric tram company was required to incorporate the latest in modern street lighting into its overhead catenary supply, along the Ealing section of the Uxbridge Road. A municipally-built generating station near Clayponds Avenue supplied power to more street lighting that ran northward, up and along Mount Park Road and
6560-530: Was sunk by it, Charles Goodeve sent him a message concluding "I am particularly pleased as it fully substantiates the foresight you showed in pushing this in its early stages. My congratulations." His celebrity as a writer caused the Ministry of Information to send him to the Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944 and later to Burma as a correspondent. He finished the war with the rank of lieutenant commander in
6642-697: Was transcribed and printed by K J Allison for Ealing Historical Society in 1961. Settlements were scattered throughout the parish. Many of them were along what is now called St. Mary 's Road, near to the church in the centre of the parish. There were also houses at Little Ealing, Ealing Dean, Haven Green, Drayton Green and Castlebar Hill. The parish of Ealing was far from wholly divided among manors, such as those of Ealing, Gunnersbury and Pitshanger . These when used for crops were mostly wheat, but also barley and rye , with considerable pasture for cows, draught animals, sheep and recorded poultry keeping. There were five free tenements on Ealing manor in 1423: Absdons in
6724-554: Was working on military projects with his former boss at Vickers, Sir Dennistoun Burney . He was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) as a sub-lieutenant, having joined as an "elderly yachtsman" and expected to be in charge of a drifter or minesweeper, but after two days he was asked about his career and technical experience. He reached the "dizzy rank" of lieutenant commander, knowing nothing about "Sunday Divisions" and secretly fearing when he went on
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