Trustee from the Toolroom

Product Information

Oh My, I must admit that sometimes I just want to hear a good story read by a great narrator. I've been listening to audio books on my daily walks for over 40 years and one of my all time favorite narrators is Frank Muller. His is a voice that can lend enchantment to almost any story. Unfortunately he is no longer alive and finding his books gets harder and harder but every once in awhile I long to hear him again. So I stumbled on this. I'm sure I probably read this long ago as it was published in 1960. I love Nevil Shute and at one time read many of his novels but it was great fun to hear this story read by Muller. any warranty of any kind, expressed or implied; without even the implied warranty of merchantability Oh my, I did like this. It is light, but cute and fun and will make you smile. I certainly do recommend it.

Trustee from the Toolroom is a time machine that takes you straight to the fifties. From the opening lines onwards it feels a bit like a toy world. You’ll learn what engineers were up to in their spare-time (obviously building miniature mechanical motors), deduct how much a female shop assistant earned (not much) and wonder about currency export restrictions between the US and Britain and other such trivia. So do all the details bore you? No, because the message conveyed is about people. The message conveyed is so simple and so obvious, but one we often forget. The scenarios drawn are not believable, but they will make you smile. Every element of this structure is interlinked with every other; the girder no more important than the wires bracing it. While reading this tale of quiet model engineer Keith Stewart's journey to previously unimagined parts of the globe in an attempt to recover his nieces birthright, I couldn't help feeling a little saddened throughout. It may be me spouting off, uninformed, with my higher education arts degree, but I got the impression while reading that books like this just won't be written anymore. Not due to the strength of the writing (which is competent but never sets out to dazzle) but due to the combination of specialist technical detail and humanity. Keith Stewart is a middle-aged mechanic who has given up the daily grind of a job to make mechanical models—for the joy he derives from them, and for the meagre income they bring him from the magazine Miniature Mechanics, for which he writes articles. He and his wife Katie (a store employee) lead a quiet, uneventful life. Very unlike Keith's sister Jo, married to an ex-naval officer, John Dermott. Jo and John lead far more flamboyant, exciting lives, and having decided one day to migrate to Canada, ask Keith and Katie to look after their 10-year old daughter Janice for the few months she will be in Britain while her parents sail in their little yacht all the way to Vancouver.

My Book Notes

So what is this about? On the surface it is about a Mr. Ordinary, an unpretentious little guy, but he is honest and hardworking. He is kind. He is happy with little. He doesn't need a big fancy house or a flashy job or fancy clothes. It is an adventure story too. Travel on airplanes and boats - a trip that you would not imagine! The plot of the novel hinges on the actions of a modest technical journalist, Keith Stewart, whose life has been focused on the design and engineering of small and scale-model precision machinery. Stewart writes serial articles about how to build miniature machines in a magazine called the Miniature Mechanic, which are extremely well regarded in the modelling community — as is he. Shute, Nevil (1960). "Trustee from the Toolroom". London: Heinemann. LCCN 60002940. {{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ( help). (U.S. co-edition: New York, Morrow, 1960, LCCN 60-9545.)

In no event will the author(s) or editor(s) of this document be liable to you or to any other party It is one of those tales where uprightness and hard work pay off. In our current world where dishonesty pays until it doesn't, where our heroes usually turn out to be false, I fell for the heartwarming simplicity of a guy who faces hardship to do the right thing and who, because he is skilled and clever and willing to go every extra mile required, wins in the end. And it has one of the most likeable protagonists I’ve ever encountered: “… an honest little man of lower-middle-class suburban type, content to go along upon a miserable salary for the sake of doing the work he loved…”. Keith Stewart is not handsome, or witty or heroic in the usual sense of the word. But he’s a wonderfully likeable man, the sort of character who does that little bit to help restore your faith in mankind. This book is much like him: gentle, likeable, warm and friendly. Before they embark on the voyage, however, John turns to Keith for help. Firstly, John and Jo want Keith to be the trustee for Janice should anything happen to her parents. Keith agrees. Secondly, they own a jewel box (filled, John explains, with Jo's jewels, which she is legally not allowed to take out of the country), and he wants Keith to help him fix the box—encased in concrete—to the boat's engine, so that they can smuggle it out without anybody being the wiser. Keith obliges...in 1960. His autobiography, Slide Rule, appeared in 1954. Trustee was his last book, published in 1960. It could be argued that the book is thin on plot, and it is essentially little more than a travelogue, but the strength of having such a likeable main character means it is never a chore. I'd recommend it to anybody who wants refreshingly unpretentious story with very human characters. If I’ve made it sound like a period piece that isn’t my intention, but like I said, I find it hard to believe books like this will be written for a while.

Shute describes Keith Stewart and his wife as living in the very house in South Ealing, London, where Shute himself was born and brought up. There is a faithful description of the property and of the modest way of life that went on there. On the plus side, positive portrayal of non-white characters and Jews. He was really making an effort on that front. If you cannot open a .mobi file on your mobile device, please use .epub with an appropriate eReader. Although this is not nearly as emotionally stirring as A Town Like Alice, Shute did manage to get my eyes watering again. Besides that instance, though, the overall tone of this book is definitely upbeat, and I did smile through much of it. While some passages may have been a bit over-technical, they were short and didn’t greatly impair the overall easy flow of the read.Like most authors, Shute was at his best writing about what he knew, and what he knew more about than anything else were engineering (his career) and sailing (his passion). Both feature hugely in this highly unusual story about a humble, self-effacing but great-hearted little man who overcomes all obstacles to pursue his self-imposed duty across half the world. In the end, virtue gets its reward and we can all close the book with a warm inner glow. neighbor should have a copy of Trustee wasn't, in retrospect, accidental at all. Our neighbor was an engineer (MIT, class of 1918), well read and well traveled. Trustee, a novel by a bestselling author/engineer about engineering, occupied a natural place in his library. Reading a new (only for me as Nevil Shute has been dead since 1960) book by Shute is like putting on a cardigan, comfy pj's and slippers and cozying up on the couch. It's comforting, even though astounding things can happen. Trustee from the Toolroom was Shute's last book. As soon as I started reading it, I fell comfortably into the fantastic world that he created for my reading enjoyment. Meet Mr Keith Stewart, an presumably average citizen with an unusual hobby made profession: he is a world-renowned writer for a specialist magazine – about miniature mechanics. He dedicates his time to develop new mini-machinery and kindly answers letters from strangers about problems they have building similar items. His sister is also fairly average. After having been a chorus girl, she married up the social ladder and shares or endures her naval husband’s passion for sailing. The consultancy fee enables Keith's wife to stop working and take care of their niece. Keith claims to have discovered the diamonds in luggage left behind by his in-laws, and the proceeds from their sale enable them to take care of their niece's education and other needs. The other characters proceed on their lives happily, we are told at the end of what is probably Shute's most villain-free novel.