| New novel (Hullo Russia, Goodbye England) seeks publisher - details below. |
| Click here to see all Derek Robinson books displayed in topic groups |
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Latest publication: Better Rugby Refereeing
UK Price
- £7-99 inc p&p
Okay, the season’s over - now’s the time to read a good book.
GUIDANCE Derek: People say a maximum of 94 offences
can be committed at the line-out. Ed:
I’ve got two priorities: space
and protection. Before the ball is
thrown, Derek: And what about the other 92
offences, or whatever the true number
is? Ed: If they make no difference to the game, I pay them no attention.
TIP Derek:
Let’s assume you’re very competent and totally honest. That’s all Ed:
Sense of humour? If something
funny happens, I see nothing wrong with
WARNING Ed: I see a lot of referees, often at the
very first scrum, standing between
the front Derek:
He’s the nut in the nutcrackers. Ed:
Yes. He’s giving this wonderful lecture on front-row play and nobody’s
INSIGHT Derek:
You’re not a great fan of wheeling the scrum, are you? Ed:
I’d like the scrum to get back to its first principle, which is that you
shove me
ADVICE Derek: Brevity matters a lot in refereeing. Ed: Essential.
The game’s played at such a pace, there’s no time for speeches. Derek:
Two words make a good message. Ed:
Suits me. I can remember two words. Derek:
As long as they’re positive. Ed:
You hear referees say things like ‘That’s enough’, or ‘Be careful’, when
there’s
How to get it. Only by mail order - it's not in the bookshops. We're publishing it ourselves, as a non-profit venture. So the price is low. In the UK it's just £7.99 per copy, including postage and packing. Send your cheque, payable to Torbay Mailing Services Ltd., to:
Torbay Mailing Services Ltd
P.O. Box 11
PAIGNTON
Devon TQ3
2BF
Prices
outside the
UK:
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To Rest of the World, surface mail -
£9.50 per
copy
To
Rest of the World, airmail -
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![]() Just a few of the many topics covered: ![]() The (intentional?) high tackle ![]() In-goal pressure - score or no-score? ![]() Early tackle - deliberate or accidental? ![]() Indecision is fatal. ![]() Front-row follies. |
Derek Robinson - Who He?
I am an author, English, who has cornered the market in flying novels - three about the Royal Flying corps in WW1, three about the RAF in WW2 . Best known is Goshawk Squadron, which would have won the Booker Prize in 1971 if Saul Bellow, one of the judges, had had his way. "The most readable novel of the year," Nina Bawden said in the Daily Telegraph. "I laughed aloud several times, and was in the end reduced to tears."
I'm told these novels reveal a streak
of black humour and a certain debunking of the myths of war, plus what
Paul Scott called "a narrative gift that sets up the hackles of
involvement". The American critic
Paul Fussell commented, "I defy the reader to put the book down once
Robinson has got him into the air."
My
other fiction hits other targets: it includes a trilogy about Luis
Cabrillo, a masterly double-agent and con-artist in WW2 and after,
("He's a heel, bless him." The Observer said), and Kentucky Blues, a
sprawling western in which everyone
- blacks and whites - gets the blues. "A
wonderful novel," said the Daily Telegraph, "full of hilarious and
thought-provoking incident." - and not an aeroplane in sight.
My latest aviation story is in
typescript. It’s looking for
a publisher who knows my other RAF fiction and feels up to taking on a
sequel. It’s
called
Characters from previous novels reappear: Skull, the Intelligence Officer, always getting sacked for telling the truth; and Zoe, no longer a dizzy deb, and more than a handful for Silk. Even Baggy Bletchley, last met in A Good Clean Fight, has a cameo role. To focus attention, there is the Cuban Missile Crisis. Silk surprised himself (and me) by surviving World War Two with a double DFC. Now Hullo Russia, Goodbye England finds him preoccupied with lust, distrust, and mutual nuclear annihilation, in roughly equal proportions. As somebody once said of my writing: “Disrespect falls just short of subversion.” HRGE is ready to go. Make me an offer.
…And New Paperback?
Between
novels of air combat I write stories about Luis
Cabrillo, the best double agent of World War Two. (He really existed,
but not
under that name.) With the war over, he adopts a similar career as a
con
artist. Red Rag Blues finds
him making
big bucks in 1953 in the
Biography
|
Rights
and Opportunities
CopyrightI own all rights - literary, dramatic, cinema, television radio, DVD and the rest - to all my books, with one exception. In 1971 Sam Goldwyn Jr bought the movie rights to Goshawk Squadron. So far, no movie. Make him an offer. Who knows, he might sell. For everything else, make me an offer. I'm definitely interested. Opportunities Book reviewers often remark on the suitability of my books for filming. So far, one has made it to the screen: in 1988 Piece of Cake became a 6-part TV series. Got a big audience, was shown worldwide, now available on DVD. See for yourself, then read the book. I suppose I'm biased, but some of my titles seem to me to be tailormade for the screen. Kramer's War is set on the photogenic island of Jersey, where many German fortifications still survive more or less intact. All the action in A Good Clean Fight takes place in the North African desert (sand is cheap, and a few WW2 Tomahawk fighters still exist). The Eldorado Network is a story of war set in neutral Madrid and Lisbon: no actual battles, but the conflict is endless. Kentucky Blues, "a sprawling, sometimes tragic portrait of a nation being rocked by enormous change", would seem to me to have all the makings of a TV mini-series. And the latest yarn, Red Rag Blues, is a bleakly comic scam in the best Hollywood tradition. There you have it - plot, characters, dialogue all exist. Over to you, whoever you are. Derek Robinson Contact I welcome comments and views about my books, though as a working writer I can't guarantee to have sufficient time to answer everyone. Click here to send me an email. |
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![]() The RAF Quartet (WW2) |
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Major books
and original publication dates: 1971 Goshawk Squadron 1973 Rotten with Honour 1977 Kramer's War 1979 The Eldorado Network 1983 Piece of Cake 1987 War Story 1991 Artillery of Lies 1993 A Good Clean Fight 1999 Hornet's Sting 2002 Damned Good Show 2002 Kentucky Blues 2005 Invasion 1940 2005 Red Rag Blues |