History Literature / HulloRussiaGoodbyeEngland

** During the extended prologue, the character of Air Commodore "Baggy" Bletchley is revisted. It is revealed he went [[UnusualEuphemism sand-happy]] in North Africa and in a manner worthy of Graham Chapman's [[TheBrigadier Brigadier]] in MontyPythonsFlyingCircus, he apparently took to wearing womens' clothing and calling himself "Florence of Arabia". Chapman's Brigadier was a severely pompous senior British officer from the waist up, who wore women's clothing from the waist down.

** During the extended prologue, the character of Air Commodore "Baggy" Bletchley is revisted. It is revealed he went [[UnusualEuphemism sand-happy]] in North Africa and in a manner worthy of Graham Chapman's [[TheBrigadier Brigadier]]'' in MontyPythonsFlyingCircus, he apparently took to wearing womens' clothing and calling himself "Florence of Arabia". Chapman's Brigadier was a severely pompous senior British officer from the waist up, who wore women's clothing from the waist down.

** During the extended prologue, the character of Air Commodore "Baggy" Bletchley is revisted. It is revealed he went [[UnusualEuphemism sand-happy]] in North Africa and in a manner worthy of Graham Chapman's ''{{Brigadier}}'' in MontyPythonsFlyingCircus, he apparently took to wearing womens' clothing and calling himself "Florence of Arabia". Chapman's Brigadier was a severely pompous senior British officer from the waist up, who wore women's clothing from the waist down.

* OvertheTopSecret: The pilots of the Vulcan nuclear bomber force are under continuing and unremitting security surveillance. Flight Lieutenant Silk, is under suspicion because his wife is a member of Parliament associated with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

* WorldWarIII: how it might have looked.

* UnusualEuphemism: Flight-Lieutenant Silk has an affair with a former model who has dropped out of society to live a poor but content life in the country. The relationship occupies a sort of halfway house between a FriendsWithBenefits situation and outright prostitution. There is something genuine between them. But Silk uses the cover story of "taking cello lessons" to justify his visits to her cottage and the unspoken agreement is that the cello lessons cost him £5 a session. the fact the cello never leaves its case is immaterial. [[note]]Until Mrs silk challenges him to play a middle-C at the very least. [[/note]]

This is a sequel to his novel of Bomber Command of the Royal Air Force in WW2, ''Damned Good Show''. in the fateful year of 1962, Flight Lieutenant Silk, a twice-decorated Lancaster pilot in WW II, rejoins the R.A.F. and qualifies to fly the Vulcan bomber. Piloting a Vulcan is an unforgettable experience: no other aircraft comes close to matching its all-round performance. And as bombers go, it's drop-dead gorgeous. But there's a catch. The Vulcan has only one role: to make a second strike. To act in retaliation for a Russian nuclear attack. Silk knows that knows that if he ever flies his Vulcan in anger, he'll be flying from a smoking wasteland, a Britain obliterated. But in the mad world of Mutually Assured Destruction, the Vulcan is the last - the only - deterrent. Derek Robinson returns with another rip-roaring, gung-ho R.A.F. adventure, one that exposes and confronts the brinkmanship and sabre-rattling of the Cold War Era.

* BattleButler: Stevens, the butler to Mrs Silk MP, is more than he seems and is following a different agenda.

* HarsherInHindsight: A group of American and British intelligence analysts get together and speculate on current (in 1962) world events. They debate three situations that could provoke confrontation between the USA and USSR. They agree that post-imperial Africa could be a problem - who gets the mineral resources of the continent? The issue of Persia is difficult too. too near Russia for comfort, full of lovely oil, and good for naval bases. And Cuba, a communist state too damn near the USA. The intelligence men agree that any rational American government should accept Cuba as an embarrassment and a minor irritation at best, but otherwise shrug and leave it alone. Let Russia have the sugar and cigars. It's no threat to anyone and propping up this Castro fellow is a net drain on Soviet resources.
** Later in the book, a Vulcan patrol is embarrassingly forced out of Swedish airspace by high-altitude interceptors. The Intelligence officer casually puts this down to the Swedes being peeved that their neutrality won't keep out the fall-out from other people's nuclear accidents. When Chernobyl blew in the 1980's, prevailing winds dropped a lot of the fall-out over Scandinavia.

* ApocalypseHow: the nuclear option and the people and aircraft who would have delivered it.

[[quoteright:648:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d76c4a89234ac2c773aca1215dbfc70d.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:648:Britain's nuke and its delivery system of choice]]

* OvertheTopSecret:

* GreyAndGrayMorality: the pilots of 409 Squadron try not to deal with the deeper implications of defending freedom by nuking russia, or of liberating Eastern European nations from Russia by vaporising their cities.
* KillEmAll: the usual respolution of the moral quandary - just get out there, "kick the wheels, and start the fires."

* {{Eagleland}}: A sub-theme is the diminuition of Great Britain from superpower to mere power. While the American characters are nice about it, they make it perfectly clear who leads the Western alliance, and it isn't Britain.

* {{Eagleland}}: A sub-theme is the dimunition of Great Britain from superpower to mere power. While the American characters are nice about it, they maske it perfectly clear who leads the Western alliance, and it isn't Britain.
* ASpotOftea: Of course. This is the ''British'' nuclear strike force.

* WorldWarIII: how it might have looked

This is a sequel to his novel of Bomber Command of the Royal Air Force in WW2, ''Damned Good Show''. in the fateful year of 1962, Flight Lieutenant Silk, a twice-decorated Lancaster pilot in WW II, rejoins the R.A.F. and qualifies to fly the Vulcan bomber. Piloting a Vulcan is an unforgettable experience: no other aircraft comes close to matching its all-round performance. And as bombers go, it's drop-dead gorgeous. But there's a catch. The Vulcan has only one role: to make a second strike. To act in retaliation for a Russian nuclear attack. Silk knows that knows that if he ever flies his Vulcan in anger, he'll be flying from a smoking wasteland, a Britain obliterated. But in the mad world of Mutually Assured Destruction, the Vulcan is the last - the only - deterrent. Derek Robinson returns with another rip-roaring, gung-ho R.A.F. adventure, one that exposes and confronts the brinkmanship and sabre-rattling of the Cold War Era.