Truth is often stranger than fiction, and this autobiography takes on almost heroic dimensions as various threatening events take place which make success seem like a miracle. There is no doubt that the novelist Shute is at work here! No wonder Warren goes to jail for an overly zealous prospectus in Kindling!

In 1935 when the Company had grown to very complex and expensive proportions, Shute was faced with the first necessity to "downsize". Some employees were original investors but could not handle the pace of production and stress of responsibility. This feeling of indebtedness to loyal employees and respect for their contribution, is traced thru his novels with the theme of the "little man" hero he wrote about. Their work ethic is praised with novels like Trustee and Round the Bend. He describes the obstinant behavior, in 1936 and 1937, of civil servants who would not bend their regulations to allow use of the new and more efficient Wolsely engine, thus hampering Britain's effort to re-tool for the coming threat of war. His "Balkan" experience trying to sell aircraft abroad, is mirrored in the experience of Henry Warren in Kindling.