Pastoral.

New York, NY Ballantine Books, 1944. Mass Market Paperback First Edition Thus [1944]; Probable later printing as there is no statement of the date of publication of this paperback edition. Cover price: 60 cents. Very Good+ in Wraps: shows indications of very careful use: just a hint of wear to the extremities; the very mildest rubbing to the wrapper covers; the expected light tanning to the text pages, due to aging; the binding leans a little, but remains secure; the text is clean. Free of creases to the backstrip, there is one of those wrinkles often seen, produced in production, not from use. Free of creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of underlining, hi-lighting, notations, or marginalia. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing very mild wear and a couple of very minor imperfections. Bright and clean. Not far from 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 12mo. (7.05 x 4.25 x 0.5 inches). 222 pages. Language: English. Weight: 4.8 ounces. All edges tinted orange. First Edition Thus [1944]; Probable later printing as there is no statement of the date of publication of this paperback edition. The hardcover was published in 1944. Cover price: 60 cents, so this was an early, but not the first, paperback appearance. Mass Market Paperback. Nevil Shute Norway (1899 – 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. Aviation and engineering provide the backdrop for many of Shute's novels."Pastoral" involves crew relations and love at an airbase in rural surroundings in wartime England. From an Oxfordshire air base, Wellington bombers fly missions into Germany. Only a handful of crews have survived the war long enough to become experienced. Peter Marshall is captain of one crew. When he falls in love with Gervase, her rebuff nearly costs him his concentration and life. Their relationship blossoms when he has only five more missions to go. As they tick by, tension mounts. Pastoral is skillfully written by a master storyteller - so skillfully written that you wonder why it has not been made into a movie – probably because (as that old cliché says) “they don’t make movies like that anymore.”