In the Wet

It contains many of the typical elements of a hearty and adventurous Shute yarn such as flying, the future, mystic states, and ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

The story is opened by its initial narrator – an Anglican priest in the Bush Brotherhood named Roger Hargreaves – who describes his ordinary circumstances in a large parish of the Queensland outback in 1953.

As part of his duties, he has to minister to the dying and this brings him into contact with an aged, alcoholic, opium-smoking, diseased, ex-pilot and ex-ringer named Stevie.

Although of humble origins, Anderson has advanced quickly in the RAAF and is soon offered a position commanding one of two aircraft of the Queen's Flight.

It is later made clear that the Prince carries an ultimatum from himself and his sister (the Queen has only two children)—they will not take the job of monarch as it now stands.

Anderson is ordered to fly the Queen and her entourage, including Rosemary, not back to England, but on to Australia to meet with politicians there.

En route, they have a lengthy refueling delay on Christmas Island, allowing the Queen to relax a bit—until local officials show up with their wives, in formal dress.

Her father inadvertently reveals that the Queen is contemplating having a Governor General of Britain who will deal with the politicians, with the monarch devoted to Commonwealth affairs, to make the monarchy bearable for her and her family.

The Queen announces this on her Christmas broadcast, and makes it clear that she and her family will not return to Britain without the country having undergone political reforms, meaning both the multiple vote, and the installation of a Governor General for the United Kingdom as a necessary buffer between Monarch and Parliament, whose behaviour and treatment of the Queen has become both a constitutional and personal affront prior to this declaration.

During the novel, the growing disaffection for both Monarch and Prime Minister, as well as the threat by the Prince of Wales to refuse the throne if offered it due to the behaviour of the Labour Government requires a means of settlement.

Unlike a Monarch, the Governor General has the capacity to give a direct response to the Government, without fear of political rift developing with the Crown, as this post is intermediary.

If a Governor-General's political conduct is sufficiently poor, replacement by appointment by the Crown is a realistic procedure, and is outside of the control of Parliament.

This change would then permit the reform of the political process, and expose the behaviour of an antagonistic government and Prime Minister to the entire Parliament, and House of Lords, moderating their conduct through exposure of intent.