📚 The Rather Dated Bookclub: Nevil Shute's 'Pied Piper' 📚

[FuzzyCaoraDhubh]

The 'Rather Dated' Book Club's July read, this book tells the story of John Sidney Howard, an elderly man, who, following a bereavement, decides to go to France for a fishing trip for the good of his health. The only thing is that it's the summer of 1940 and it's rumoured that the Nazis are going to invade France. This minor detail doesn't put off the veteran soldier and he proceeds to a remote village in the Jura mountains and enjoys fishing in the peaceful surroundings.

When the Nazis invade France very shortly afterwards, Howard decides that he should go home and do his duty in whatever way he can. When the proprietors of the auberge ask if he could take their two children to safety, he feels he cannot refuse. Also, could he take the maid's child? After all, what's one more and she's so good with the little girl. Howard maps out his route towards to coast.

What follows is a nightmare scenario for Howard, as he and his little brood head full tilt into the war. Trains fail, roads get clogged with refugees and they learn to dread the drone of low-flying airplanes. This quiet hero stays calm and steers his little gang through the chaos (including some really harrowing scenes) until, many adventures later and picking up more children along the way, they eventually reach a place of safety. I also liked the story that was embedded in the narrative, that of Howard's son and the girl who was nearly his fiancee.

I loved this book for the vivid description of these terrible times. This book was published before the end of the war, when victory was not at all certain. I love the authenticity of books like these. I also loved the framing of the narrative; the two men sitting in their club sheltering from an air raid and Howard relating how he had had 'a spot of bother' getting out of France. I was struck by the modesty of the man. What a hero! This was an excellent read and I'm definitely interested in reading more Nevil Shute.

Oh wow, I used to read so much Nevil Shute as a child! Thanks for reminding me of his books, Fuzzy.

If you're reading more, 'A Town like Alice' is probably his best known, and deservedly so, it's great. But I also have a spot in my heart for 'Trustee from the Toolroom'.

Thanks for the summary, OP. I too love books written around that time, whether the war is the theme of the book or not. 'On the beach' is another Nevil Shute novel, if you haven't already read it.

Thank you, both! I'll put those three on my TBR list.

I was struck by the modesty of the man. What a hero!

It's a recurring theme in Nevil Shute's work, where an ordinary person finds him/herself faced with extraordinary circumstances and finds strengths they did not know they had. Jean Paget in A Town Like Alice and Keith Stewart in Trustee from the Toolroom are two other examples.

Pastoral is a gentle wartime romance set in an RAF bomber station, if you want a fairly undemanding read.

I'm currently reading "The House Opposite" set in London during the Blitz. It was published in 1943, partly based on the author's own experience, and republished as a Furrowed Middlebrow book in 2019. The author, Barbara Noble, went on to become a story editor for 20th century Fox and then a UK editor as well as writing other books.The effects of the Blitz on very ordinary people is really explored in depth - I'm finding it fascinating.

Just seen this, hadn't realised you were doing this for July.

I also love Neville Shute's writing which I think has a grace and economy to it that typifies the best of post war fiction. I went through a phase of re reading him a few years ago, prompted by a trip to Australia which made me re read A Town Like Alice. His books are populated by deeply moral and somewhat reticent men and women who are forced by circumstances to become more than they thought they could.

I loved Pied Piper and also enjoyed Trustee from the Toolroom, Requiem for a Wren, and the Rainbow and the Rose, as well as the more famous ones. Definitely a great author for a revisit.

A Town Like Alice is one of my absolute favourite books - we went to Green Island and Cairns when we visited Aus and it really brought it to life. You do need to look past some of the language which was of its time, but it's a wonderful book. The series from the 80s (with the beautiful Bryan Brown) is on YouTube - well worth a watch.

Thanks for starting the discussion Fuzzy. I absolutely loved this book. I found the story so absorbing, actually really quite gripping, that it was a very fast read.

Mr Howard was indeed a humble hero. I found his attitude towards the children interesting. He cared for them, and was worried about them, but there was no sentimentality or babying of them. I was also interested in his relationship with the French woman his son would have married. I’ve just read A Town Like Alice (on the strength of how much I enjoyed this book), and there’s a similar relationship in there between a quiet, older man and a young woman who brings him a new zest for life. I suppose one dated aspect of Pied Piper is the central plot itself - even taking the wartime circumstances into account - it seems hard to imagine any parents nowadays packing off their two young children with an unknown man to travel unaccompanied!

I found the details of the war itself felt very authentic, which makes sense given when it was written. Nevil Shute strikes me as a consummate story-teller. Since Pied Piper, I’ve not just read A Town Like Alice, but also Pastoral, which I felt gave a lot of insights into the Allied bombing campaign. He really knows how to keep a reader’s interest. I’ll be working through most of his novels I think.

I posted earlier and have now been inspired to read more of his books. My dad had a number of Nevil Shute books when I was growing up, but I think I've only read A Town Like Alice and On The Beach. Just been to the library and have borrowed The Far Country.
I'm currently reading my way through some Bronte novels, so I think I'll alternate a Bronte with a Shute😊

There's an excellent biography of Neville Shute called Slide Rule. Lots of nerdy detail on designing and manufacturing aeroplanes (his other job).

I loved it! The inversion of the Pied Piper fairy story is very clever I thought. Right up to Howard essentially ending the journey at the sea, which here doesn't mean disaster but instead salvation for the children.

I didn't really know what to make of the book at first - the framing device of Howard telling the story after the fact, in his club, took away the peril of "will he make it back?" and left instead "will the kids make it back, and if so, how will this old man manage it?"

Having said that, something kept me reading, since I started and finished on the same day - it is a proper old-fashioned page turner!

The ending I have to say did annoy me a bit - it just seems like an incredible coincidence that in that village, that that Gestapo officer had not only the temperament to negotiate with Howard, but also had a need - a child to get to safety - that Howard could fulfil by doing exactly what he was already doing. I guess it's not a deus ex machina in the technical sense, since the whole narrative is about this piper collecting more children as he went; but it certainly stretched my credibility right to the limit.

The most obvious "slightly dated" aspect I think is the casual antisemitism, along with the one not at all casual instance, where Nicole is talking to the Jewish child Marjan:

Nicole came forward. "Tell us," she said gently. "Would you like to grow up with horses? Or would you rather buy things and sell them for a profit?" After all, she thought, it would be difficult for him to go against the characteristics of his race. "Would you rather do that?"

Whilst not drawing an equivalence between Nicole and the Nazis, it is ironic surely from our standpoint that people who are rescuing children from the tyranny of Nazi-occupied Europe, including Jewish children, can still casually reproduce the stereotype of Jews as naturally inclined towards commerce and profit.

Anyway, it is of its time for sure. Overall though, I liked it, and will definitely be seeking out more of Shute's novels. A long time ago - decades - I read Landfall, and can't really remember much about it, and have read nothing else by him.

I read this book many years ago and have never forgotten it. Back to Shute I go.

How have I missed this? I love Nevil Shute’s writing, but the last time I mentioned his books at my local book club, someone was very sneery about him. While it’s true some of his language is dated, I think he’s an amazing story-teller and I love those of his books I read.

I started with A Town Like Alice (and, yes, I insisted on visiting Green Island too when I was in Australia!). But Trustee from the Toolroom is my favorite. I love the quiet, overlooked men who turn out to be heroes.

I haven’t seen anyone mention an Old Captivity yet. I’ve just re-read it, and it’s a bit different to his other books, but still has the flying theme, the quiet hero, and something just a bit mysterious / inexplicable in the story.

I haven’t managed to re-skim the book, I'm afraid - I read it fairly recently, so decided not to re-read for this month - but I'm delighted so many people enjoyed it. Yes, Shute is very much of his time, but his central themes of thoroughly decent, competent people (let’s face it, mainly men) doing quietly heroic things is very appealing, and he tells a great story. Trustee from the Toolroom is very similar in that respect. I read Pastoral last year and that’s great too.

@JennyChawleigh The House Opposite is great but have you read Noble's wartime novel Doreen? I freely confess to banging on about it endlessly on here but it’s a wonderful book. Also set in the Blitz - but it explores what happens when a little girl is sent to a foster family in the country. It’s a tear-jerker but so beautifully and sensitively written. I'm always trying to get people to read it!

I read Doreen a year or two ago and loved it. As you say, it’s sensitively written and so insightful on class, human emotions, and children’s perspectives. And of course the impact of war on civilians.

Sorry, that was obviously a reply to @Terpsichore

I'll definitely try and get a copy of Doreen. On the same theme, Saplings , by Noel Streatfeild shows the cumulative psychological.effects of WWII on four siblings.

Doreen is a Persephone book so fairly easy to track down, @JennyChawleigh.
We had Saplings as one of our previous Rather Dated choices!

I have a vivid memory of reading Doreen. It really made an impression on me. I had a very old edition from the library as well, which was rather amazing.

I'm enjoying the responses to Pied Piper.
I think this is a book that will also stand the test of time for me. I admired the elegance of the narrative which put the story to the forefront. Simple and economical in style, as a poster mentioned upthread, which really draws the reader in.

I thought we read Doreen as one of our choices? Or maybe someone here recommended it, and I read it from that … anyway, yes really moving. I’m going to order Pastoral and The House Opposite for my “fly and flop” holiday in September. It’s a week so I’ll probably need one more rather dated page turner.
I found Pied Piper excellent. NS is very easy to read, the prose is lucid and unfussy, just how I like it ( although not childlike) and I remember feeling the same about On the Beach and Requiem for a Wren.
What I particularly enjoyed was the contemporaneous nature of the story, written as you say @FuzzyCaoraDhubh , when victory was not certain. I didn’t know, for example, that the Germans set up canteens and rest centres in the bits of France they occupied; when one’s knowledge of WW2 is largely gleaned from films I think one misses the quiet everyday details like that. The food details were interesting ; those poor children, existing on bread and chocolate and red wine mixed with water! And the unsentimental depiction of the children was also very enjoyable.
I don’t think a modern writer of fiction would be allowed by editors to use the framing device that NS uses. But I really liked the quiet heroism of the two men sitting in their club, mildly irritated by the air raid going on above them. It reminded me of a scene I’ve always liked in a black and white war film (can’t recall which) where some sailors are below decks while the luftwaffe strafes them and someone mutters “anyone got any Flit (fly spray)?”
What happened to the kitten? I must have missed that bit.

I also wondered what happened to the kitten! It must have been parked somewhere.

We read The House Opposite as a book club read, but not Doreen.

On the club as framing device: Stephen King revived the idea in 1982 for the novella "The Breathing Method," although the club became as much of a character as the story told there. Although that's hardly modern, at 44 years old, older than Pied Piper was at the time King wrote his story!

I love Pied Piper, though, when rereading it recently, I was astonished, like another poster, by the original parents' insouciant handing over of their primary aged children to a total stranger in a war zone.

Shute enjoys a framing device and uses something similar in many of his books. It makes for a cosy feel even when the story is not actually cosy at all.

I very much enjoyed his novel The Chequerboard recently, which is explicitly anti-racist through the stories of several men who were exposed to people of other races and backgrounds through their WW2 experiences.

Did we do The House Opposite, Fuzzy? I have no memory of that, but then that’s true of so many things in my life 😂

Ehmm...maybe we did or maybe I think we did 😆