Derek Robinson
            



Author's Notes
Nutshell:  Rock Springs, Kentucky - last chance for the second-rate.  Or even third.  Slaves had no choice, of course, until the Civil War freed them.  Free to what?  Get lost.

"A novel set in Kentucky in the 19th century is quite a change of direction, but Robinson has succeeded with this hugely enjoyable book... Forbidden love, kidnappings and false accusations help the plot along but it is the historical backdrop and the supporting cast that steal the show... a wonderful novel...full of hilarious and thought-provoking incident."
                                          Toby Clements  -  DAILY TELEGRAPH

"Robinson handles his enormous subject with skill and vigour... Reading Kentucky  Blues is exhausting but never dull." - THE SPECTATOR




Author's Notes
 Nutshell:  You're an American airman, washed ashore on the most heavily fortified  part of Hitler's Europe: the island of Jersey.
You want to blow it up. The islanders think otherwise. Who's right?
Who's crazy? Who survives?


''Excellently plotted... the book moves along at a great lick to a
splendid climax."                                -  THE GUARDIAN

"An original and dazzlingly controlled novel... Major Wolff is one
of the most successfully conceived German officers ever to walk 
the pages of fiction."                          -   SUNDAY TIMES

 

Author's Notes

Nutshell:  Cold War spies can see a double-cross coming a mile away, but this one is so obvious, it must be a triple-cross. Or maybe a simple cock-up?  Let's start again...


"There are no stereotypes here... Each character has a life of his own.  Rotten With Honor more than passes the final test.
You're sorry when it's over."
                                -  NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
 
'The plot twists and turns like a dancing dervish... No one could ask
for better entertainment."
                                -  DAILY TELEGRAPH

 
                                                      Author's Notes                                     
Kentucky Blues  (Published 2002.  Paperbacked 2003)
Rock Springs is a backwater. It's as high upstream as the riverboats can go, which is why, in the 1840s, the settlers who got off the boat reckoned the West could wait, this was good enough. The town grows like a Hollywood saga turned on its head. The people do their best but their main product is failure.
One man's calamity being another man's joke, you might say they make their own entertainment.
Anyway, the slaves do the real work  -  until the Civil War makes them free.  However, the war has left everyone flat broke, so nobody wants to hire an ex-slave. Where do they go next? Well, there's a big old wilderness up in the hills, all snakes and bears and buzzards. Go live there. And do what? Make moonshine, maybe. Leave the white folks to drink, fight, fail and blame others. Leave them to feud badly and accuse wrongly and have a big murder trial in very poor taste. That sort of thing gives a man a thirst for moonshine.  Hey... Isn't that what folks call black humour? Rock Springs has more black humour than you could shake a stick at.  Pass the bottle.              Top of Page

                                                           

Kramer's War  (Published 1977. Paperbacked 1978)
It's 1944. Lieutenant Kramer, sole survivor of a ditched American bomber, crawls ashore one night. He knows he's in Europe when he sees a German sentry, so he kills him. That's what war is all about, isn't it? Then Kramer discovers he's on Jersey, in the Channel Islands, the only part of  Britain occupied by Germany. Hitler's armies have made it a stronghold, and Kramer finds it an irresistible target for sabotage.  But the islanders have spent the past four years working out how to survive. They know that resistance is worse than pointless, it's stupid, because it damages everyone and accomplishes nothing. Since Jersey must import food, co-existence is essential. Someone had better tame Kramer before he runs amuck.  With the best intentions, of course.
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Rotten With Honour (Published 1973. Paperbacked 1975)
Starin, head of Soviet Intelligence in London, is good at his job.  Too damn good.  How canfile:///C:/Users/Ray/Desktop/derekrobinson/derekrobinsonpage2.html British Intelligence get rid of him?  Maybe let him steal one of the West's biggest military secrets and take it back to Moscow  -  despite the efforts of one of the best British agents. When the secret turns out to be a dud, so is Starin. That's the plan. Unfortunately, all the best British agents are busy, so the job gets given to Hale.  Nice chap, Hale. Very honourable. We shall miss him.
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 To see other Derek Robinson website pages, please click:

           Homepage                  The RFC Trilogy (WW1)               The RAF Quartet (WW2)

      The Double Agent Trilogy             Bristol Books

Availability of the books.
The three novels shown above are out of print but will soon be available as e-books. The following websites may be may be useful for tracking down secondhand copies.

Amazon UK   Amazon USA      Fantastic Fiction  

Other websites you may find of interest: 
Wikipedia             The Aerodrome Forum      LibraryThing.com