History Creator / DerekRobinson

Derek Robinson (born 12 April 1932) is an English writer. He wrote three novels about UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, three about UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and several more about spies and secret agents. Other works include ''Literature/HulloRussiaGoodbyeEngland'', about the British pilots who would have nuked Russia in any outbreak of WW3. He broke from type to produce ''Kentucky Blues'', a generational novel about the Deep South before, during, and after the American Civil War. All are BlackComedy edging toward {{satire}}.

Derek Robinson is an English writer. He wrote three novels about UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, three about UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and several more about spies and secret agents. Other works include ''Literature/HulloRussiaGoodbyeEngland'', about the British pilots who would have nuked Russia in any outbreak of WW3. He broke from type to produce ''Kentucky Blues'', a generational novel about the Deep South before, during, and after the American Civil War. All are BlackComedy edging toward {{satire}}.

Tropes in Derek Robinson's Books:

** ''Piece of Cake'' makes the point that, despite what Churchill said, the pilots of the Royal Air Force during the [[TheHomeFront Battle Of Britain]] were very much "daunted by odds".

* UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar: The novel ''Kentucky Blues'' deals with the time period 1840 - 1870, seen as the parellel tales of two feuding white families and the slaves they are forced to emancipate in 1865.

** Although it is hinted that the initially {{Biggles}}-like pilot, Barton, survives the war to fly the first of the jets.

** ''Damned Good Show'' is about Bomber Command in WW2. Not the killing machine that flied sophisticated four-engined heavy bombers; more the ramshackle outfit expected to fly pre-war designs over Germany in 1939 and 1940. The ''survivors'' get to risk things all over again in Lancasters. And one survivor of Lancasters gets to risk ''everything'' in the nuclear-armed jets...

* TheBrigadier: Air Commodore "Baggy" Bletchley fills this role to a tee. Although in the WW1 trilogy, a Brigadier appears who is competent, able and completely understanding of his pilots; he has risen through the ranks in the Royal Flying Corps, flown and survived combat missions himself, and is one promotion away from being a General even though he is only just over thirty. Testament to the incredible loss of life among combat pilots.

Derek Robinson is an English writer. He wrote three novels about UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, three about UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, and several more about spies and secret agents. Other works include ''Literature/HulloRussiaGoodbyeEngland'', about the British pilots who would have nuked Russia in any outbreak of WW3. He broke from type to produce ''Kentucky Blues'', a generational novel about the Deep South before, during, and after the American Civil War. All are BlackComedy edging toward {{satire}}.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne: ''Goshawk Squadron'', ''War Story'', and ''Hornet's Sting''. All feature the exploits of the Royal Flying Corps.
* UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo: ''Piece of Cake'', ''A Good Clean Fight'', and ''Damn Good Show''. Mostly about the Royal Air Force, with cameos from the Special Air Service, the Afrika Korps, and several reporters.

* SpotOfTea: They're British, after all. In ''Literature/HulloRussiaGoodbyeEngland'', Squadron-leader Quinlan says, only half-jokingly, that if the Russians were gentlemen they'd delay Armageddon for a few minutes, to let us finish our tea first. (The Vulcan duty aircrat are at dispersal and their planes ready to be in the air within ninety seconds).

** Averted in ''Literature/HulloRussiaGoodbyeEngland'' as this is only a ColdWar. But subverted in that if they ever have to do it for real - EverybodyDies. And that is very literally '''everybody'''. The only fatalities in this book are the bookie who tries to blackmail a pilot with gambling debts, and by inference, the Russian spy who tries to compromise Silk.

Derek Robinson is an English writer. He wrote three novels about UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, three about UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, and several more about spies and secret agents. Other works include one about the British pilots who would have nuked Russia in any outbreak of WW3. He broke from type to produce ''Kentucky Blues'', a generational novel about the Deep South before, during, and after the American Civil War. All are BlackComedy edging toward {{satire}}.

* AcePilot: Moggy Cattermole certainly, though he's just as much a MagnificentBastard, with emphasis on the bastard. Also the Maverick Major Wooley, a foul-mouthed and insubordinate Ace who rose from the ranks.

* SpotOfTea: They're British, after all.

** Also, ''Kramer's War'', ''The Eldorado Network'', and ''Artillery of Lies'', though these are about noncombatants. Has since written a novel about the Vulcan Bombers of the 1960's, then Britain's primary nuclear deterrent, and the sort of pilots who would have nuked Russia.

* CassandraTruth: [=CH3=], an American volunteer pilot who'd previously fought against the ''Luftwaffe'' in Spain, tries to warn his new RAF comrades about what they are up against but his warnings go disbelieved and unheeded... because, y'know, the Spanish Republicans ''lost'', dear boy.

* GoodIsNotNice: See the bit above about "sneaking up behind your enemy and blowing his head off". Hick Hooper, the token American in ''A Good Clean Fight'', develops a skill in blowing up German ambulances -- whether or not they're full of ammunition. Moggy Cattermole, the EnsembleDarkHorse of ''Piece of Cake'', once shot down a Luftwaffe rescue plane, then doubled back and strafed the dinghy it was trying to rescue.

* SpotOfTea: They're British, after all.
* UnfriendlyFire: in ''Piece of Cake'' the pilots allow Squadron Leader Rex to dive into a German formation unsupported because they've become convinced his inflexible adherence to overly complex and impractical prewar tactics is going to get them all killed.

* CassandraTruth: CH3, an American volunteer pilot who'd previously fought against the ''Luftwaffe'' in Spain, tries to warn his new RAF comrades about what they are up against but his warnings go disbelieved and unheeded... because, y'know, the Spanish Republicans ''lost'', dear boy.

** The RealLife pilot that CH3 was based on, Pilot Officer Billy Fiske, died quite shortly after the point where Piece of Cake ends.

* UnfriendlyFire: in ''Piece of Cake'' the pilots allow Squadron Leader Rex to dive into a German formation unsupported because they're convinced his inflexible adherence to ridiculously complex and impractical prewar tactics is going to get them all killed.

* BallsOfSteel: inverted in "Baggy" Bletchley. Due to warm summer weather and the scrotal bag that earned him his nickname, he manages to get his testicles trapped between the seat and the pedestal of a toilet. Whilst in pain and figuring out how to extricate himself, a German fighter does a drive-by shooting of the airfield and presumably kills him - he is trapped insode a badly shot-up lavatory.

Derek Robinson is an English writer. He wrote three novels about UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, three about UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, and several more about spies and secret agents. Other works include one about the British pilots who would have nuked Russia in any outbreak of WW3. He broke from type to produce ''Kentucky Blues'', a generational novel about the deep South before, during, and after the American Civil War. All are BlackComedy edging toward {{satire}}.

** Although it is hinted that the initially Biggles-like pilot, Barton, survives the war to fly the first of the jets.

Derek Robinson is an English writer. He wrote three novels about UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, three about UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo, and several more about spies and secret agents. All are BlackComedy edging toward {{satire}}.

* CatapultNightmare: Fanny Barton's recurring nightmare about piloting an impossible plane with no airscrew, moving at impossibly fast speeds, with unresponsive controls which do not do what Barton expects them to do, and being unable to get out. He inevitqably wakes sitting upright and sweating.

** One pilot buzzes ships on a French canal, forcing a barge to crash and a smaller boat to capsize. this is so that he can perform the feat of flying ''underneath'' a bridge, with feet to spare on all sides. He boasts about this and browbeats another pilot into doing the same. Unfortunately it has rained a lot since the successful feat and the river level has risen. so when the second pilot attempts to fly under the bridge...