Thursday, 27 March 2025

"On The Beach" (Nevil Shute)- One That Didn't Make The Shortlist To Jackanory!

I had heard about this one. It was talked about in hushed terms. An old book, published in 1957. A classic, also two films - old and new. So not wanting to be told off for getting "yet another book in the house" I used an Audible subscription token to listen to it, and if anything hearing it as the spoken word was much more traumatic than reading it. At times the dead pan delivery of "the way life went on" was truly chilling, a dystopian reflection of a normality that is not quite normal, against the nightmare world events and its approaching consequences (see below, Neil Shute, a fantastic read/listen. as relevant now as then):  


Bedtime reading for the young ones it is not and remember this was years before Carl Sagan's calculations of a "nuclear winter" hypothesis resulting from a strategic nuclear exchange.   

5 comments:

pancerni said...

Read it at 13
Still have enough sadness remembering how detailed the process was. Great read. Recommend it highly

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Totally agree pancerni - should be classed as essential reading!

Martin Rapier said...

It is on my shelf of classic nuclear nightmare fiction, along with Failsafe, Dr Strangelove etc.

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Is it next to "When the Winds Blows"

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

I always thought that one as the cartoon version of Threads