Posted by John Wilson on May 24, 2003 at 09:43:07 from 203.96.58.8 user hugo.
In Reply to: Re: BBC - The Big Read posted by Mike Field on May 23, 2003 at 11:48:59:
Neville Shute Norway’s autobiography “Slide Rule” is worth reading. He didn’t use his full name for writing as he was a serious aircraft designer; the Vickers Airship R100 then Airspeed aircraft eg the Airspeed Oxford.
He mentions taking 2-3 weeks in the days before computers to solve simultaneous equations for the R100 structure; then having to start again if the assumptions about which elements of the structure were in tension or compression were incorrect!
PS: “Ransome Revisited” (1975) and “The Travelling Man” (1976) by Elizabeth Mace are set in a devastated future in which some children find a copy of “Swallowdale” and set out to find if such a world still exists. Have seen a reference to them in “Sequels” but have not seen them.