Refugee

Three months ago British Playwright R. C. Sherriff (Journey's End) turned down a $28,000 offer to write a movie scenario for Hollywood. Reason: after paying Socialist Britain's income tax, Sherriff reckoned that he would have only $1,400 of his earnings left (TIME, March 27). Last week another British writer announced his intention to strike against the exorbitant tax rates. From his latest book Legacy, Novelist Nevil Shute (Pastoral, Chequer Board) expects to make about -L-18,000 ($50,400), but after paying British taxes he will be able to keep only about -L-3,000. To save a smitch of his earnings on Legacy and future books, Novelist Shute (real name: Nevil Shute Norway) concluded he simply would have to get out of Britain and plans next month to leave his home on Hayling Island in Hampshire and move to Australia.

The refugee author and his family will be accompanied by Shute's faithful private secretary, the Shute gardener and handyman, and his four-seater Percival-Proctor monoplane ("To fly your own plane is the ideal way for an author to travel"). Says Shute: "I want my two daughters to finish their education in Australia. At the end of five years, they can decide if they want to stay in that prosperous but somewhat uncultured country or return to this bleak but cultured and traditional land." Even down under, Shute estimates, he would be able to pocket only a puny -L-5,760 of Legacy's profits. Nevertheless, he says, "there's a Conservative government in Australia, so we may hope to see taxes fall there. Here, I don't think they ever will."

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