Readers  Write  #1  March 09

                         News from the author, now and then.

       One of the rewards of self-publishing is the number of messages I get from people who read my books.  Here are some of their comments.  First names only, for obvious reasons.  

Edward, in London, was one of the first to get hold of the latest novel, Hullo Russia, Goodbye England, and said:  “I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the denouement  -  Silk’s final flight in the Vulcan  -   was particularly good.  You fooled this reader nicely.”   Sean in Lancashire simply said:  “Damn splendid book.”   Steve, in Nottingham, welcomed “the long-awaited reappearance of my favourite cussed intelligence officer.”  That must be Skull.  Chris, in Victoria, Australia, was still reading HRGE when he said he was “enjoying my copy immensely. It’s always nice to spend time with old friends like Skull (possibly my favourite character in any of your books) and Silk… the appearance of Baggy Bletchley was a treat too.” And John, in New York State, said:  “I loved every page of it.”  

Every new novel is a gamble - for you as well as for me.  No book pleases everyone, and any author who expects it to happen is doomed to disappointment.  So I was neither surprised nor dismayed when Graham in Essex sent me a thoughtful review which mentions “two minor disappointments.  First, I wished the book were longer - it all seemed over very quickly.  Secondly, there were no new major characters to engage us,  which reinforces the feeling that this is something of a tailpiece to earlier books.”   Which raises the question: how long should a novel be?  Answer:  the story itself makes that decision.  When it reaches its end, the book is complete.  Piece of Cake made 569 pages in hardback, while Goshawk Squadron made only 218.  Hullo Russia runs to 264 pages.  Different stories, different lengths. 

I’m happy to say that Graham enjoyed Hullo Russia.  He says:  “the meeting of Robinson’s cool approach and sardonic humour with the lunacy of nuclear deterrence and Mutually Assured Destruction proves to be a marriage made in heaven.”   I like his thumbnail profiles.  Of Silk: “the man you meet in a bar, a charmer and funny too… Silk is running out of places to do the only thing he knows and enjoys.  For me, he resembles one of Sam Peckinpah’s heroes, increasingly lost as the West is pacified and tidied up.”  About Skull:  “the good man in a bad trade. The man you love to have on your team, clever and thoughtful - but he never knows when to shut up.  Because there is no combat in this novel and the enemy is totally unseen, Skull fulfills that role and acts as the grit in the plot which gives us the pearls.”   Nicely put.  

Other books are others’ favourites. Mark, in Liverpool, reckons Piece of Cake is my best WW2/RAF book - he’s re-read it so often, he’s on his third paperback copy.  (His brother’s vote goes to Damned Good Show.) Likewise C.M.G., in the Borders,  who tells me he’s been known to finish reading the ending and immediately start again at the beginning  -  and finding something new every time.  Gordon, in Lanarkshire, got so much out of Hornet’s Sting that he’s “experiencing symptoms of bereavement and wondering if there’s any chance you’ll write another RFC novel?”  Well, nothing’s impossible;  but my  new novel,  out later this year, is Operation Bamboozle,  yet another in the Luis Cabrillo series which began with The Eldorado Network  -  of which Steve in Florida writes: “It caused me physical pain from laughing.”  But his favourite remains Goshawk Squadron.  

Many thanks to you all. 

Derek                                                                                                  Return to Homepage