Pied Piper

Nevil Shute

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As recommended on BBC4's A Good Read - 'A very good writer...simple, elegant and readable...a fantastic story' Jonathan Coe

Nevil Shute's classic Second World War novel is an uplifting, satisfying and moving story.

John Howard is determined to brighten up his old age by taking a fishing trip to France. However, during his stay the Nazis invade and he is forced to try to escape back to England with the two small children of some friends who must stay behind to help the Allied war effort. As the conflict grows closer, the roads become impassable and Howard also comes across five more children who need his help. He ends up leading this motley group of youngsters through the French countryside, constantly beset by danger yet heroically protecting his charges.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JOHN BOYNE
'A very good writer...simple, elegant and readable...a fantastic story' Jonathan Coe

Published: 1 September 2010
ISBN: 9781409087076
Imprint: Vintage Digital
Format: EBook
Pages: 320

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About the author

Nevil Shute

Nevil Shute was born on 17 January 1899 in Ealing, London. After attending the Dragon School and Shrewsbury School, he studied Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. He worked as an aeronautical engineer and published his first novel, Marazan, in 1926. In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they went on to have two daughters. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons. After the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived until his death on 12 January 1960. His most celebrated novels include Pied Piper (1942), No Highway (1948), A Town Like Alice (1950) and On the Beach (1957).

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Praise for Pied Piper

Mr Shute not only writes vividly and excitingly of occupied France, but with a delightful understanding of children
Sunday Times

A small masterpiece...a book about frail but indomitable old age, simple kindness, childhood, and courage in dark confusing danger. It is not sentimental but prosaic and suspenseful on every page...it conjures up the country of the 1940's, and gently acclaims the value of ordinary decency in wicked times
Libby Purves