- Shute, Nevil [Nevil Shute Norway].
Slide Rule.
Kelly Bray, UK: House of Stratus, [1954] 2000.
ISBN 978-1-84232-291-8.
-
The author is best known for his novels, several of which were
made into Hollywood movies, including
No Highway and
On the Beach.
In this book, he chronicles his “day job” as
an aeronautical engineer and aviation entrepreneur in what
he describes as the golden age of aviation: an epoch where a
small team of people could design and manufacture innovative
aircraft without the huge budgets, enormous bureaucratic
organisations, or intrusive regulation which overcame the
spirit of individual invention and enterprise as aviation
matured. (The author, fearing that being known as a
fictioneer might make him seem disreputable as an engineer,
published his books under the name “Nevil Shute”,
while using his full name, “Nevil Shute Norway”
in his technical and business career. He explains that
decision in this book, published after he had become a
full-time writer.)
This is a slim volume, but there is as much wisdom here as in
a dozen ordinary books this size, and the writing is
simultaneously straightforward and breathtakingly beautiful.
A substantial part of the book recounts the history of the
U.K. airship project, which pitted a private industry team in
which Shute played a major rôle building the
R.100 in competition
with a government-designed and -built ship, the
R.101, designed
to the same specifications. Seldom in the modern history of
technology has there been such a clear-cut illustration of the
difference between private enterprise designing toward a
specification under a deadline and fixed budget and a government
project with unlimited funds, no oversight, and with
specifications and schedules at the whim of politicians with no
technical knowledge whatsoever. The messy triumph of the R.100 and the
tragedy of the R.101, recounted here by an insider, explains
the entire sordid history of NASA, the Concorde, and innumerable
other politically-driven technological boondoggles.
Had Shute brought the book to a close at the end of the airship
saga, it would be regarded as a masterpiece of reportage of
a now-forgotten episode in aviation history. But then he goes
on to describe his experience in founding, funding, and
operating a start-up aircraft manufacturer,
Airspeed Ltd.,
in the middle of the Great Depression. This is simply the best
first-person account of entrepreneurship and the difficult
decisions one must make in bringing a business into being
and keeping it going “whatever it takes”, and of
the true motivation of the entrepreneur (hint: money is
way down the list) that I have ever read, and I
speak as somebody who has
written one of my own.
Then, if that weren't enough, Shute sprinkles the narrative
with gems of insight aspiring writers may struggle years
trying to painfully figure out on their own, which are handed
to those seeking to master the craft almost in passing.
I could quote dozens of lengthy passages from this book
which almost made me shiver when I read them from the sheer life-tested
insight distilled into so few words. But I'm not going to, because
what you need to do is go and get this book, right now (see
below for an electronic edition), and drop whatever you're doing
and read it cover to cover. I have had several wise people counsel me
to do the same over the years and, for whatever reason, never seemed
to find the time. How I wish I had read this book before I embarked
upon my career in business, and how much comfort and confidence it
would have given me upon reaching the difficult point where a
business has outgrown the capabilities and interests of its
founders.
An excellent Kindle edition is available.
July 2011 