Nevil Shute Collection

Because A Town Like Alice is one of Nevil Shute's most renowned books, the Nevil Shute Norway Foundation has contributed to Alice Springs Public Library in a number of ways. The Foundation has supported the development of the Nevil Shute Memorial Garden in the Library grounds; donated a complete hard copy set of Nevil Shute's works for permanent display; and donated recordings of some of his books for loan.

At the official opening of the current Library building (October 19th 1980), Mayor George Smith advocated naming the Library 'The Nevil Shute Memorial Library' saying "The sort of public relations that this man handed out, just because he was in love with the spirit of Alice Springs, could not have been bought". The Library today is publicly referred to as Alice Springs Public Library, but officially remains the Nevil Shute Memorial Library.

The Nevil Shute Norway Foundation

The Nevil Shute Norway Foundation started in late 1996 as an Internet bookclub dedicated to reading, discussing and celebrating the works of Nevil Shute. To celebrate Nevil's 100th birthday, in 2001 the Foundation organised an official visit to Alice Springs.

The Foundation's members expressed their interest in raising public awareness of the writing and philosophy of Nevil Shute Norway and kindly donated 19 of the works of Nevil Shute on cassette.

In 2007, again the Foundation visited Alice Springs for their 5th Biennial Nevil Shute Norway Foundation Conference.

Nevil Shute's book 'A Town Like Alice' was filmed in 1951 with Virginia McKenna and Peter Finch starring. In 1980 a second version was produced starring Helen Morse, Bryan Brown and Gordon Jackson.

In October 2003, as a further boost to our collection, the Foundation donated a collection of Nevil Shute's works. These can be seen on permanent display in the library.