Derek Robinson Books In Order

Publication Order of Double Agent Books

Publication Order of RAF Books

Publication Order of RFC Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Derek Robinson is a bestselling historical fiction author from the United Kingdom that is best known for his black humor in blockbuster military aviation novels.

He is also the author of several novels set in his hometown of Bristol in addition to works on sports and history. He made his debut when he penned “Goshawk Squadron” in 1971, which would end up becoming nominated for the Booker Prize.
Robinson went to Cotham Grammar School in his earlier years and for his national service, he was a fighter pilot with the Royal Air Force.

Derek has always been interested in history and as a teenager, he went to Cambridge from where he graduated with a degree in history.

Following graduation from college, he worked in broadcast TV and radio and in advertising in the United States and the United Kingdom. He has also qualified as a rugby referee and has a membership in the professional association.

If there are two things that Derek Robinson is very knowledgeable about it has to be the Royal Air Force and writing good copy. He learned how to pen good advertising copy while he worked in advertising for many years.

During his years as an advertising professional, he was a freelance reporter and also did some local journalism. It was while he was with the Airforce and in journalism that he started dreaming of one day penning the perfect detective novel.

He would use his knowledge working as a fighter plotter and qualified radar operator to pen his novels. In recent years, Derek Robinson has branched out of his comfort zone to also publish two nonfiction works.
His novels have examined the widely held assertion that during the Battle of Britain the United Kingdom was under the threat of occupation by the Nazis.

He has also penned some nonfiction works looking into the misadventures and circumstances that resulted in the breakout of World War I.

While he has written authoritative works on anything from Bristol, several spy stories, and several about the Rugby Union, he has for the most part been defined by his military aviation works.

Derek Robinson got inspired to pen his novel from a feature that ran in the “Sunday Telegraph” in 1968.

The feature was all about celebrating the 50th anniversary of the RAF in which one of the most prominent veterans of World War I gave an interview.

Over the next few months, he sat down to write the manuscript for “Goshawk Squadron.” He would ultimately get the novel published in 1971. He now has more than eighteen fiction works to his name alongside several more nonfiction works.
Robinson currently makes his home in Cotswold Village, where he lives with his American wife Sheila.

“Piece of Cake” by Derek Robinson is a story that is set during World War II. It follows a Royal Air Force squadron and particularly the “Bore War” or “Phoney War” that happened before the 1940 Nazi invasion of France.

Robinson focuses on the characters involved including how they act, and think and how the war affects each of them. Derek pens an unsentimental account following the characters, even though he is never callous or careless.

His characters are flawed human beings just like anyone and this is compounded by the fact that the RAF has poor leadership.

According to Robinson, Britain was never saved by the Battle of Britain as there was no chance of a feasible or successful invasion of the Island by the Nazis.

The author does a great job tearing down the many myths regarding the conduct of the air war and the Battle of Britain. He even throws some jabs at what people have always believed was chivalrous conduct but was not.

Unlike Piece of Cake, which follows the Hornet Squadron on some of its earlier adventures of Word War II, this work takes a different trajectory.

Derek Robinson’s “A Good Clean Fight,” is a combination of three stories that intersect at different points across the novel.

The first story is all about a SAS patrol that conducts raids on the North African Luftwaffe airfields.

The second story is that of a Luftwaffe intelligence officer, who will do anything to stop the RAF raids. The third is about a Hornet squadron that is about to go on some ground attack missions.

The novel comes with the usual components that you would expect of a Derek Robinson work. These include some very good dialogue with a dark sense of wit and humor.

It also comes with flawed characters and the usual derring and dashing doers that are to be found in classic military stories. While there is a feeling that most people involved in the war were bastards, nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, having flawed characters provides the stories with much-needed verisimilitude that many other works from this period tend to lack, as they often love to glorify all their characters.

Derek Robinson’s novel “Damned Good Show” is set in the earlier stages of World War II rather than the misfortunes and fortunes of a fighter squadron.

As usual, the author provides his usual combination of crackling dialogue, fascinating historical and technical facts, and a significant dose of gallows humor.

Robinson also shows a knack for knocking off some of the leading characters in unexpected ways several times over the course of the story.

This makes for an unsettling reading experience though just like in the previous works it provides a sense of verisimilitude. This technique helps ground the story in the unpleasant and shocking realities of war.
Another fascinating thing in the novel is how it expires the proliferation of wartime documentaries that explore aspects of the bomber raids.

The tension between the difficulties that come with shooting an actual operation and the reality of bomber raids in addition to the need for morale-boosting propaganda shows just how misleading documentary pictures may be in showcasing the true nature of how a conflict is fought.