On the Beach is an apocalyptic novel published in 1957, written by British author Nevil Shute after he immigrated to Australia. The novel details the experiences of a mixed group of people in Melbourne as they await the arrival of deadly radiation spreading towards them from the Northern Hemisphere, following a nuclear war some years previously. As the radiation approaches, each person deals with impending death differently.

Shute's initial story was published as a four-part series, The Last Days on Earth, in the London weekly periodical Sunday Graphic, in April 1957. For the novel, Shute expanded the storyline. The story has been adapted twice as a film (in 1959 and 2000) and once as a BBC Radio broadcast in 2008.

Title

The phrase "on the beach" is a Royal Navy term that indicates retirement from service. The title also refers to T. S. Eliot's poem The Hollow Men, which includes the lines:

Printings of the novel, including the first 1957 edition by William Morrow and Company, New York, contain extracts from Eliot's poem on the title page, under Shute's name, including the above quotation and the concluding lines:

Plot

It is 1963, and the setting is Australia. In the previous year, a short nuclear war had erupted, devastating most of the populated world, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout, and killing all human and animal life in the Northern Hemisphere. The war began with a nuclear attack by Albania on Israel. Egypt attacked the United States and the United Kingdom attacked Egypt. That sparked war between NATO and the Soviet Union, after which the Soviets and China destroyed each other. Some 4000 cobalt and other "superbombs" have been detonated.

Global air currents are slowly carrying the lethal nuclear fallout across the Intertropical Convergence Zone to the Southern Hemisphere. The only parts of the planet still habitable are Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the southern parts of South America. However, they are slowly succumbing to radiation poisoning as well. Australia now has eight months to live. Short of oil, automobiles, and newsprint, Australians "meander through a fatalistic existence that has suddenly lost meaning." The San Francisco Chronicle called it "the most shocking fiction I have read in years. What is shocking about it is both the idea and the sheer imaginative brilliance with which Mr. Shute brings it off." Daily Telegraph called it "Shute's most considerable achievement", and The Times stated that it is "the most evocative novel on the aftermath of a nuclear war." The Guardian commented that "fictions such as On the Beach played an important role in raising awareness about the threat of nuclear war. We stared into the abyss and then stepped back from the brink." The Los Angeles Times described the novel as "timely and ironic... an indelibly sad ending that leaves you tearful and disturbed", and The Economist called it "still incredibly moving after nearly half a century."

Floyd C. Gale of Galaxy Science Fiction called the book "an emotional wallop. It should be made mandatory reading for all professional diplomats and politicians." Isaac Asimov said, "Surely to the science fiction fan—as opposed to the general public—this must seem very milk-and-watery. So there's a nuclear war to start the story with—and what else is new?" He described the novel as an example of what he called "'tomorrow fiction'", and "there can be nothing duller than tomorrow's headlines in science fiction".

The novel does not realistically describe the effects of a global nuclear war, which were poorly understood at the time. It does not portray any form of nuclear winter. In the survival manual Nuclear War Survival Skills, Cresson Kearney describes the novel as "pseudoscientific" and "demoralising", arguing that it and similar works perpetuate the myth that any large-scale nuclear war would inevitably wipe out all human life. This myth, argues Kearney, is dangerous as it discourages people from taking precautionary measures that could save lives in the event of a nuclear attack, in the mistaken belief that any precaution is futile.

Adaptations

  • On the Beach (1959 film) is a feature film starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Fred Astaire.
  • On the Beach (2000 film) is a made-for-television film starring Armand Assante, Rachel Ward, and Bryan Brown.
  • Classic Serial: On the Beach (November 2008), BBC Radio 4 broadcast a full-cast audio dramatization in two hour-long episodes, as part of their Classic Serial strand.
  • On the Beach (2023 theatre production), a play adapted by artistic director Kip Williams and playwright Tommy Murphy for the Sydney Theatre Company.

See also

  • 1957 in science fiction
  • "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes", a 1984 song by Ultravox, which was inspired by the novel
  • "Every Day is Like Sunday", a 1988 song by Morrissey, which was inspired by the novel
  • The Last Ship, a 1988 novel with similar themes
  • Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, a 2025 video game that takes place in a post-apocalyptic Australia and features a submarine-like vehicle

References

  • This updated, online version of the published work, Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction (1987), contains extensive discussion of Shute's book.