Derek Robinson - A Splendid Little War

Any factual errors, of course, are down to me.

DEREK ROBINSON writes about wartime flying and flyers better than anyone else. Yet there is more to his novels than the air combat of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force. There is a rich cast of characters for whom humour comes as naturally as breathing. It is this combination — men who take nothing seriously except flying — that makes Robinson one of the outstanding storytellers of his day.

He says that he owes much to luck. The Education Act of 1944 let him jump the class barrier and escape a Bristol housing estate for Cambridge. He read Modern History (which inexplicably ended in 1914) and escaped again to advertising agencies in London and New York. He escaped a third time to write two long and unpublishable novels, and finally, at the age of thirty-nine, got it right. Goshawk Squadron was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1971. It made enough money to finance the next novel. The rest is ink, sweat and tears…

Goshawk Squadron

Hornet’s Sting

War Story

A Splendid Little War

Piece of Cake

A Good Clean Fight

Damned Good Show

Hullo Russia, Goodbye England

The Eldorado Network

Artillery of Lies

Red Rag Blues

Operation Bamboozle

Kentucky Blues

Kramer’s War

Rotten with Honour

Invasion 1940

* Available from MacLehose Press from 2012/13

** To be published in ebook by MacLehose Press

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by

Quercus

55 Baker Street

7th Floor, South Block

London W1U 8EW

Copyright © 2013 by Derek Robinson Map copyright © by Emily Faccini

The moral right of Derek Robinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN (HB) 978 0 85705 229 2

ISBN (TPB) 978 0 85705 232 2

ISBN (Ebook) 978 1 78087 810 2

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

You can find this and many other great books at:

www.quercusbooks.co.ukand

www.maclehose.com