Howard is accused of spying and threatened with death. While waiting to escape France on a fishing boat, he and his charges are discovered by the Germans. As an Englishman, he is an enemy to the occupying forces. Eventually, he and the children are stranded in Nazi-occupied France. His journey is hampered by the unexpected speed of the Nazi invasion of France, and by the fact that he eventually finds himself entrusted with the custody of seven young children. Entrusted with the care of two English children, and overtaken by events, he attempts to return to England and safety.

The story concerns an elderly Englishman, John Sidney Howard, who goes on a fishing holiday in France after the outbreak of the Second World War, but before the fall of France. His most celebrated novels include Pied Piper (1942), No Highway (1948), A Town Like Alice (1950) and On the Beach (1957).Pied Piper = The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Nevil Shute After the war he continued to write and settled in Australia where he lived until his death on 12 January 1960. During the Second World War he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve where he worked on developing secret weapons.

In 1931 he married Frances Mary Heaton and they went on to have two daughters. He worked as an aeronautical engineer and published his first novel, Marazan, in 1926. After attending the Dragon School and Shrewsbury School, he studied Engineering Science at Balliol College, Oxford. Nevil Shute Norway was born on 17 January 1899 in Ealing, London. He ends up leading this motley group of youngsters through the French countryside, constantly beset by danger yet heroically protecting his charges. As the conflict grows closer the roads become impassable and Howard also comes across five more children who need his help. However, during his stay the Nazis invade and he is forced to try to escape back to England with the two small children of some friends who are forced to stay behind in order to help the Allied war effort. John Howard is determined to brighten up his old age by taking a fishing trip to France.

Pied Piper by Nevil Shute