Aggers and wife may a trek across Australia after the horrible English loss of the Ashes. He mentions the book A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute, one of my favorite authors. And, I like that book.
There is a road in Portsmouth named after Nevil Shute, for his days there in WWII, but the city officials in charge of signs spelled his name wrong at least years. I wonder if that was ever corrected? Online, it is correct.
The only pub with a real name mentioned in his novels is in Sussex, and I wonder it is still there?
Shute went to Australia in 1949, had his 50 birthday there and returned to England and began writing A Town Like Alice. He settled there and died there.
I have read many of his books and recommend these for a start and the above, Trustee From The Toolroom, Requiem for a Wren.
Shute was more than a novelist....he was a brilliant engineer and designer. Check out this site...http://www.nevilshute.org/index.php Photos are from this site.
The first comprehensive biography of Shute is available here. It was published in 2011, but I have not read it as of yet. http://www.amazon.com/Parallel-Motion-Biography-Nevil-Norway/dp/1889439371/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311256818&sr=1-1