 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." "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 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 "An original and dazzlingly
controlled novel... Major Wolff
is one |
 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...
|
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.
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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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of Page |
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