Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle - an experience that leads to the deaths of many. Due to her courageous spirit and ability to speak Malay, Jean takes on the role of leader of the sorry gaggle of prisoners and many end up owing their lives to her indomitable spirit. While on the march, the group run into some Australian prisoners, one of whom, Joe Harman, helps them steal some food, and is horrifically punished by the Japanese as a result. After the war, Jean tracks Joe down in Australia and together they begin to dream of surmounting the past and transforming his one-horse outback town into a thriving community like Alice Springs...

A heart-rending story of strength in adversity, A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute is a celebration of the overwhelming power of love. This Macmillan Collector's Library edition features an afterword by bestselling novelist, Jenny Colgan. Jean Paget, a young English woman, is captured by the Japanese army in Malaya during World War Two. She is forced on a brutal march across the country with a group of women and children. During this appalling ordeal she befriends Joe Harman, an Australian soldier who risks his own life to help the women. A few years later, and back in England, Jean receives an unexpected and substantial inheritance. She decides to use the money to repay the Malayan people who risked their lives to help her and her fellow prisoners during the war so she travels back to the village where they stayed. From there she travels on to Australia in search of lost love. Cut off in the Australian outback and thousands of miles from home, Jean once again draws on her admirable determination and entrepreneurial spirit when she sets out to build a thriving community. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collectors Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collectors Library are books to love and treasure. A heart-rending story of strength in adversity, A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute is a celebration of the overwhelming power of love. This Macmillan Collectors Library edition features an afterword by bestselling novelist, Jenny Colgan. Jean Paget, a young English woman, is captured by the Japanese army in Malaya during World War Two. She is forced on a brutal march across the country with a group of women and children. During this appalling ordeal she befriends Joe Harman, an Australian soldier who risks his own life to help the women. A few years later, and back in England, Jean receives an unexpected and substantial inheritance. She decides to use the money to repay the Malayan people who risked their lives to help her and her fellow prisoners during the war so she travels back to the village where they stayed. From there she travels on to Australia in search of lost love. Cut off in the Australian outback and thousands of miles from home, Jean once again draws on her admirable determination and entrepreneurial spirit when she sets out to build a thriving community.

Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collectors Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collectors Library are books to love and treasure. A heart-rending story of strength in adversity, A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute is a celebration of the overwhelming power of love. This Macmillan Collectors Library edition features an afterword by bestselling novelist, Jenny Colgan. Jean Paget, a young English woman, is captured by the Japanese army in Malaya during World War Two. She is forced on a brutal march across the country with a group of women and children. During this appalling ordeal she befriends Joe Harman, an Australian soldier who risks his own life to help the women. A few years later, and back in England, Jean receives an unexpected and substantial inheritance. She decides to use the money to repay the Malayan people who risked their lives to help her and her fellow prisoners during the war so she travels back to the village where they stayed. From there she travels on to Australia in search of lost love. Cut off in the Australian outback and thousands of miles from home, Jean once again draws on her admirable determination and entrepreneurial spirit when she sets out to build a thriving community.

The mysterious death of a young woman on an Australian farm reveals a bittersweet story of doomed wartime romance amidst a family crisis. Alan Duncan returns to his family home in Australia after the war and several years of study in England. But his homecoming is marred by the mysterious suicide of his parents' quiet and reliable parlour-maid. A search through her belongings in search of clues leads to heartbreaking revelations about the woman's identity, the death of Alan's brother Bill and, above all, the disappearance of his brother's fiancee, Janet.

Jerry Chambers, a fresh-faced young pilot, mistakenly sinks a British submarine. He is reprimanded and sent to a remote posting to test an experimental new bomb, a dangerous mission far away from the girl he loves. While Jerry risks his life, his sweetheart Mona sets about clearing her lover's name...but will she be too late?

During the Second World War, Peter Marshall's crew become one of the most successful bombing teams in their Oxfordshire airbase. However, when Peter falls in love with a young WAAF officer, his concentration begins to suffer and it looks as though his perfect run of missions - and his life - may be threatened.

Nevil Shute was a power and a pioneer in the world of flying long before he began to write the stories that made him a bestselling novelist. This autobiography charts Shute's path from childhood to his career as a gifted aeronautical engineer working at the forefront of the technological experimentation of the 1920s and 30s. The inspiration for many of the themes and concerns of Shute's novels can be identified in this enjoyable and enlightening memoir.

In their trusty fishing boat Genevieve, armed with a flame thrower and limited ammunition, a small group of officers and men take a stand against the might of the German army after the fall of France in World War II. This is classic Shute: at once a thrilling adventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and a heartbreaking tale of the ravages of war.

Read this classic uplifting, moving and heartwarming story about life in the face of the cold war. Theodore Honey is a shy, inconspicuous aircraft engineer whose eccentric interests in quantum mechanics and spiritualism are frowned upon in aviation circles. But when a passenger plane crashes in unexplained circumstances, Honey must convince his superiors that his unorthodox theories are correct before more lives are lost.

Through a series of mishaps, Henry Warren, a recently divorced City financier, ends up in hospital in a Northern town ruined by the closure of its shipyard. Moved by the fate of the town's inhabitants, Warren risks his fortune and reputation to save the shipyard and restore the town to its former prosperity. In seeking to change the fate of the town, he radically changes his own.

Nevil Shute’s classic Second World War novel is an uplifting, satisfying and moving story. John Howard is determined to brighten up his old age by taking a fishing trip to France. However, during his stay the Nazis invade and he is forced to try to escape back to England with the two small children of some friends who must stay behind to help the Allied war effort. As the conflict grows closer, the roads become impassable and Howard also comes across five more children who need his help. He ends up leading this motley group of youngsters through the French countryside, constantly beset by danger yet heroically protecting his charges.

Three years ago, Bella Castle left her home town nursing a broken heart over Dominic Thane. Now she has a new job she loves, selling houses in the Cotswold countryside. And her boyfriend, Nevil, has just proposed. They're just right for each other, Bella tells herself. So why doesn't she feel happier? Then Dominic turns up unexpectedly. And Bella begins to ask herself whether Nevil really is her perfect match after all...

John Turner, a young man with a chequered past, has been told he has just one year to live. He decides to use his time in search of three very different men he met briefly during the war: an snobbish British pilot, a young corporal accused of murder, and a black G.I. accused of attempted rape. Along the way, Turner learns about forgiveness, tolerance and second chances, and overcomes his fear of death.

A young English woman leaves her ageing parents to visit friends living in the Australian outback. She falls in love, both with the country and with Carl, a doctor and Czech refugee. Brought together through dramatic encounters and strange twists of fate, their relationship hangs in the balance when Jennifer is called back to England.

It is the rainy season. Drunk and delirious, an old man lies dying in the Queensland bush. In his opium-hazed last hours, a priest finds his deserted shack and listens to his last words. Half-awake and half-dreaming the old man tells the story of an adventure set decades in the future, in a very different world...