Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute

Parts of machines - coil winders and plate fittings and gear boxes and hydraulic jacks and roller chains and sprockets and lathes and heat transfer gizmos and….

The book is filled with detailed descriptions of machines and mechanical gadgets - for airplanes, for boats, for lumber mills. There is a peculiar characteristic to this book. Travel on airplanes and boats - a trip that you would not imagine! He doesn't need a big fancy house or a flashy job or fancy clothes. Ordinary, an unpretentious little guy, but he is honest and hardworking.

So what is this about? On the surface it is about a Mr. It is light, but cute and fun and will make you smile. He writes both kinds beautifully, making him one of my favorite authors to read. Some of his books are emotionally stirring, like A Town Like Alice, but some are just good fun, like this one. Shute knows how to spin a tale that is both informative (I know a bit more about engineering and sailing now) and enjoyable. Keith is a marvelous character, and there are several side characters that are also captivating, among them the wealthy financier, Sol Hirzhorn, and the unpredictable self-taught seaman, Jack Donelly. The novel is really the story of his fulfillment of that task and how it reveals who Keith Stewart is to himself and to the world at large. When, on the death of her parents, he is left as trustee to his niece, he finds himself faced with a tremendous task that he feels he must perform to fulfill the obligation. He invents miniature engineering marvels and writes articles and instructions for a magazine titled Miniature Mechanic. Keith Stewart is one of Nevil Shute’s wonderful, down-to-earth, smarter than they seem, characters. An engineer is a man who can do for five bob what any bloody fool can do for a quid.

Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute