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  • Published: 15 October 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099530145
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $24.99

The Rainbow and the Rose




A classic adventure from the author of A Town Like Alice and On the Beach.

When Johnny Pascoe attempts to rescue a sick girl from the Tasmanian outback his plane crashes leaving him dangerously injured. Ronnie Clarke, who was trained by Pascoe, endeavours to fly a doctor in to help but this proves more difficult than he imagined. As he waits overnight at Pascoe's house in order to try again the next day Clarke revisits the past of this unusual man - and reveals the shocking and tragic secrets that have influenced his life.

  • Published: 15 October 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099530145
  • Imprint: Vintage Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $24.99

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 The Rainbow and the Rose

That supreme storyteller, Nevil Shute

The Times

Shute was a brilliant storyteller and terrific example for any writer

Gerald Seymour, Express

Nevil Shute made me yearn for a faithful, plodding, Shute-type of man. I imagined us trekking across the Australian outback, finding a run-down hamlet, and then transforming it together until death or flood parted us

Sue Townshed, The Times