Nevil Shute Norway

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
—T. S. Eliot

The Navy Department, however, had maintained him on full pay throughout these months, and he was grateful to them.

They had a small car in the garage, but since the short war had ended a year previously it remained unused.