A Splendid Little War by Derek Robinson review –
Late in the day, Robinson has pulled off
a remarkable coup, shedding light on RAF volunteers' involvement in
Nicholas Lezard The
Guardian, Tuesday 1 April 2014 (http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/01/splendid-little-war-derek-robinson-review
)
The fighting didn't stop in 1918. There may have been an
armistice then, but that didn't mean the trouble was over or that there weren't
some restless soldiers still itching for a scrap. Particularly itchy were the
pilots, who got easily bored. In this novel, one British airman flour-bombs the
Brighton Express for a prank and hits the dining-car. "Few pilots had that
kind of skill," muses an officer, reading the reports. "In the
margin, the adjutant wrote: Jessop?" However, there was an almighty civil
war going on in
This is the fourth and presumably final volume of Derek
Robinson's RFC quartet, the one that began with Goshawk Squadron in 1971. The
air force is now the RAF, but some characters remain from previous novels –
those who either joined late and were lucky enough not to get shot down, or
those who had desk jobs in the first place. Earlier novels made much of the
disposability of newly qualified pilots; here, that is not a problem. The
dangers in the
There are two interesting things about this novel. One is that its author was pushing 80 when he wrote it. I would normally consider it irrelevant – bad manners, even – to mention age, but when the writing is as crisp and fast as this, the humour as grim and good as ever, you have to salute the author.
The other interesting point is that this is not just an anti-gung-ho, illusion-stripping account of meaningless death in battle of the kind that Robinson has reliably produced so far. This is also, quietly, a historical novel that places its fighting in political context; we have scenes in which a secret advisory committee makes plans and briefs the PM as to events. (We get to meet Lloyd George by the end.) The airmen may know little and care less about the people they're fighting – which makes a point in itself – but the cynical realpolitik of the behind-the-scenes statesmen is enormously illuminating, shedding light even on the chaotic acts of war that Merlin squadron – as the RAF volunteers to Russia call themselves – engage in.
And here's another thing: while my first reading of the book
provided an interesting perspective on the Russian character (on lying:
"Russians can't stop themselves. There's a word for that kind of lying. We
call it vranyo. It satisfies some inner need"), it was only on the most
recent reading that I noticed, with a jolt, that the action takes place in
So, rather late in the day, Robinson has pulled off a remarkable coup. It's as briskly intelligent as anything he has done but he has also increased our historical understanding. The first and second world wars, where he has set most of his fiction before, are hardly closed books. This episode is, and we should thank him for helping to prise open its covers.