Derek Robinson (novelist)
Derek Robinson is a British author best known for his military aviation novels full of black humour. He has also written several books on some of the more sordid events in the history of Bristol, his home town, as well as guides to rugby. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1971 for his first novel, Goshawk Squadron.
After attending Cotham Grammar School, Robinson served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter plotter during his National Service. He read history at Downing College, Cambridge, worked in advertising in the UK and the US and was later employed as a broadcaster on radio and television. He was a qualified rugby referee for more than thirty years and is a life member of Bristol Society of Rugby Referees. He was married in 1964.
Following his research of historical records for his novel Piece of Cake, Robinson became convinced that it was the supremacy of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom's coastal waters that caused Adolf Hitler to postpone invasion plans and not the Battle of Britain, as commonly accepted.
Works
Aviation novels
Novels set in squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War:Goshawk Squadron is set in 1918, with the squadron flying the S.E.5a.War Story is set in 1916, with Hornet Squadron flying the F.E.2b and F.E.2d which they prefer to the B.E.2 Quirks.Hornet's Sting is set in 1917, with Hornet Squadron flying the Sopwith Pup, Nieuport, and the Bristol F.2B Fighter.Novel set in the inter-war era:A Splendid Little War is set in 1919, with a British Squadron taking part in the Russian Civil War and flying Sopwith Camels.
Novels set in RAF squadrons during the Second World War:Piece of Cake is set during the Phoney War and Battle of Britain, with Hornet Squadron flying the Hurricane. The TV miniseries with the same name is based on this book.A Good Clean Fight covers the Desert Air Force during 1942, with Hornet Squadron flying the Curtiss Tomahawk.Damned Good Show covers RAF Bomber Command's early bomber operations and has fictional No. 409 Squadron RAF flying the Handley Page Hampden.
Novel set in the Cold War:Hullo Russia, Goodbye England begins in 1943, as Silk is on his second tour, and moves into the early 1960s, when he rejoins the RAF as an Avro Vulcan pilot during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This novel was originally self-published and only available from Robinson's own website, but a paperback edition was published by MacLehose Press in 2012.
All eight of Robinson's aviation novels were released in paperback editions by MacLehose Press in 2012–2013.