Trustee from the Toolroom

Keith Stewart is an unlikely hero: a modest, unassuming man who lives in a tiny house in the London suburbs, where he spends his days crafting exquisite miniature engines and writing a popular column for a model engineering magazine. His life is quiet, predictable, and perfectly content—until his sister and brother-in-law are lost at sea while sailing their yacht across the Pacific. Keith learns that hidden aboard the wrecked vessel, now lying on a remote coral atoll, is a fortune in diamonds meant to secure the future of his orphaned niece. Honor-bound to retrieve them, this humble craftsman who has never traveled beyond England must somehow cross the world to reach an inaccessible island in the middle of the ocean. What follows is an extraordinary odyssey as Keith discovers that his reputation in the worldwide community of model engineers opens doors he never imagined, creating a chain of friendship and generosity that carries him from England to Hawaii to the scattered islands of the Pacific. Nevil Shute's warm and deeply human novel celebrates the decency of ordinary people, the bonds that unite craftsmen across cultures, and the remarkable adventures that can unfold when a quiet man of integrity is called upon to do his duty. A moving testament to friendship, skill, and the quiet heroism of keeping one's word.