Actually, the book should have been called "A Town Like The Alice", but apparently Shute's publishers didn't like the the, so to speak.

Anyway, wasn't the definitive story about Alice sung by Dr Hook?

"Nevil Shute" was actually short for "Nevil Shute Norway". Mr Norway was an engineer who took to writing books in the evenings at his kitchen table while he was involved in designing the R100 airship. This was the one that didn't crash and burn in France. He also began and ran an aircraft company for several years. He wrote about his life as an engineer and businessman in "Slide Rule", a good read if you haven't bothered up until now. His real life exploits were actually much more interesting than his novels, IMHO!



The idiot also known as Capfka ...