 First UK edition | |
| Author | Nevil Shute |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Val Biro |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Heinemann (UK) William Morrow (US) |
Publication date | 1956 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Beyond the Black Stump is a novel by British author Nevil Shute. It was first published in the UK by William Heinemann Ltd, in 1956.
The story concerns a young American geologist, Stanton Laird, working in the Australian outback in the field of oil exploration. Although he is in a very remote location - beyond the black stump - in a region called "the Lunatic" in Western Australia, he is part of a crew that has a well-appointed mobile facility.
He is befriended by a local farming family, the Regans, and develops a relationship with their daughter Mollie. The Regans run an enormously profitable station, but their domestic lifestyle is somewhat unconventional, with the two Regan brothers at one time having Mollie's mother move from one to the other without bothering to get a divorce. The family is large, and even larger when counting the biracial children produced by both fathers. The children are taught by the Judge, an English exile and alcoholic, who gives the children an excellent education and keeps the finances of the station. Over the course of the explorations (which prove unsuccessful), he notes the unique lifestyle on what amounts to the Australian frontier, and falls in love with Mollie. The two wish to wed, but Mollie's mother insists that Mollie first see how the Lairds live in their Oregon town, Hazel, which was once on the frontier, but is no longer, though its citizens take pride in feeling that it still is.
The two travel to Hazel. At first, Mollie gets along well in the Laird family home. But then Stanton's one-time love, Ruth, the widow of Stanton's best friend, returns to Hazel with her children. The oldest son bears a tremendous resemblance to Stanton, and Stanton is moved to confess to Mollie both that the son may be his, and that he killed a girl in a drunken accident as a teenager. Mollie is unconcerned about the boy—such things are common where she comes from—but is concerned about the accident, and about Stanton's lack of remorse for the dead girl. As Stanton expected Mollie to care very much about the boy, and did not expect her to be so concerned about the girl, the two begin to realize they have a very different outlook on life.
Soon, Mollie comes to realize that she will never fit in while in Hazel, and does not particularly want to. Her place is on the true frontier, in the Lunatic, not in Hazel. She returns to Australia, where she will likely marry a young neighbor, an emigrant from England, who has long loved her. Stanton is likely to marry Ruth, as Mollie suggests he should. Stanton has a wedding present for Mollie, though—his final report reveals that the neighbor's impoverished lands lie over great quantities of artesian water, which will allow the neighbor—and Mollie—to flourish.
According to the co-ordinates for the oil exploration given in the final pages of the novel—23 degrees 5 minutes South, 118 degrees 51 minutes East [1] —most of the story is set in the Ophthalmia Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, roughly halfway between where the towns of Paraburdoo and Newman are today. The Eastern Oregon town that Shute calls "Hazel" seems to be the town of Joseph, or possibly La Grande at the foot of the Wallowa mountains, which contains the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area.
Nevil Shute Norway was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from inferences by his employers (Vickers) or from fellow engineers that he was '"not a serious person" or from potentially adverse publicity in connection with his novels, which included On the Beach and A Town Like Alice.
On the Beach is an apocalyptic novel published in 1957, written by British author Nevil Shute after he emigrated to Australia. The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the Northern Hemisphere, following a nuclear war the previous year. As the radiation approaches, each person deals with impending death differently.
A Town Like Alice is a romance novel by Nevil Shute, published in 1950 when Shute had newly settled in Australia. Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman, becomes romantically interested in a fellow prisoner of World War II in Malaya, and after liberation emigrates to Australia to be with him, where she attempts, by investing her substantial financial inheritance, to generate economic prosperity in a small outback community—to turn it into "a town like Alice" i.e. Alice Springs.
Helen Mary Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate. She founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, and military action in general.
Australian literature is the written or literary work produced in the area or by the people of the Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding colonies. During its early Western history, Australia was a collection of British colonies; as such, its recognised literary tradition begins with and is linked to the broader tradition of English literature. However, the narrative art of Australian writers has, since 1788, introduced the character of a new continent into literature—exploring such themes as Aboriginality, mateship, egalitarianism, democracy, national identity, migration, Australia's unique location and geography, the complexities of urban living, and "the beauty and the terror" of life in the Australian bush.
The Far Country is a novel by Nevil Shute, first published in 1952.
Lonely Road is a novel by British author Nevil Shute. It was first published in 1932 by William Heinemann and in the US by William Morrow. In 1936 it was adapted as a film, Lonely Road, released in the US as Scotland Yard Commands, starring Clive Brook and Victoria Hopper. The novel also served as the basis for an episode in the BBC series The Jazz Age in 1968.
Black stump is an Australian expression for an imaginary point beyond which the country is considered remote or uncivilised, an abstract marker of the limits of established settlement. The origin of the expression, especially in its evolved use as an imaginary marker in the landscape, is contested. The various claims are discussed below.
William Henry Mettam "Robin" Bailey was an English actor. He was born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.
Laragh is a small village in County Wicklow, Ireland. It lies at the junction of three roads through the Wicklow Mountains and is primarily known for its proximity to the monastic settlement of Glendalough. Sally Gap and the Glenmacnass Waterfall are to the north, to the west is Glendalough and the Wicklow Gap, and to the south is the Glenmalure Valley.
On the Beach is a 1959 American post-apocalyptic science fiction drama film from United Artists starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, and Anthony Perkins. Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, it is based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel On the Beach depicting the aftermath of a nuclear war. Unlike the novel, no one is assigned blame for starting the war, which attributes global annihilation to fear compounded by accident or misjudgment.
Sheila Bromley, . sometimes billed as Sheila LeGay, Sheila Manners, Sheila Mannors or Sheila Manors, was an American television and film actress. She is best known for her roles in B-movies, mostly Westerns of the era.
Marcus Carlyle Clarke was an Australian medical doctor who at the age of 23 was appointed District Surgeon, North Borneo, based at Kudat after answering an advertisement in the Medical Journal of Australia in 1938. After an eventful year in Kudat, he was transferred to Sandakan as Port Health Officer, then to Keningau as District Surgeon, Beaufort and the Interior.
Balint Stephen Biro was a children's author, artist and illustrator. He received his education in Budapest and London. From about 1955 he lived in Chesham, where he helped to found the Chesham Society, and then moved to Amersham about 1971 until 1985.
Gille de Vlieg is a photographer and anti-apartheid activist. She was born in England and moved to South Africa with her mother when she was 3 years old. During apartheid she was a member of both the Black Sash and one of the few women members of the Afrapix photography collective. Her images have been published in newspapers, magazines and books nationally and internationally. Unlike many of her counterparts, de Vlieg received little public acclaim for her work up until recently. About her work, she says, "I wanted to make a contribution to an alternative view of South Africa, a view not seen on the South African TV screen then." Her images cover the following topics: land removals, rural lifestyle, township lifestyle, gender lifestyle, United Democratic Front (UDF), anti-harassment campaign, police violence, protests against death penalty, funerals, Black Sash, protests against incorporation into Bophuthatswana; Release Mandela Campaign, End Conscription Campaign (ECC), conscientious objectors, African National Congress (ANC) Welcome Home Rally, Day of the Vow (Geloftedag), street children, and homeless people.
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1948.
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1950.
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1951.
This article presents a list of the historical events and publications of Australian literature during 1956.