"Ordeal" is the story of the Corbett family during the first weeks of a war that was the more terrible for being so mysterious. Peter and those like him had no idea of what was really happening or going to happen. Official information was disturbingly meager. No army movements were reported and nothing was heard of the Fleet. All that the man in the street knew was that he and his were being mercilessly bombed on every cloudy night, and that the Air Force was supposedly carrying out satisfactory "reprisals."…

Mr. Shute traces the hesitant and baffled steps towards safety in a matter-of-fact, entirely convincing style that stems from the school of Defoe….

Granted his subject, it would have been easy for Mr. Shute to write a highly exciting and affecting story. He has chosen instead to write one that is simply credible and absorbing. He has held...