A WW1 Farce, 30 Sep 2008
This book seems to be more of a farce set in World War 1 than a serious war story. The dialogue between the squadron pilots is well written and amusing but the characters aren't well developed and I couldn't tell the difference between any of them, they were just names (although maybe this was the point....). There also seem to be several pointless sub plots that don't go anywhere. The author also doesn's seem to know too much about the aircraft he's based the book around, deriding it as slow when it was one of the fastest aircraft of the war and not seeming to know that it had a fuselage mounted gun as well as the wing mounted one. Little things but irritating.

Brutally black humoured tale of a war that's lost it's way., 26 Sep 2007
Life is cheap and short in this story of WW1 pilots. A sense of honour will get you killed. Expect nothing else. Marvellously taut and humourous. The bare bones of survival and death in war.

Good read but some silly innacuracies, 22 Jul 2005
For once I'm managing to get through a book in two days instead of the usual 3 weeks! It rolls and keeps my attention but irritaes with little rrors - not many but enough to take the gloss off.
Robinson's SE5a's are only armed with a Lewis gun on the top wing. The SE5a had a Vickers on the engine cowling in addition to the Lewis. The advantage of the Lewis was that it could be pulled back on its mount to fire upwards into and enemy when the attacker was below and behind his opponent.
Robinson gives a character the words "Shangri-La" to name a 'dream home'. Hilton's book "Lost Horizon" which gave the world the words Shangri-La was not published until 1933.
Robinso writes of Albatros D.III's in 1918 as if they were a real foe for an SE5a, surely they would have been up agaisnt Albatros DVs?
Robisnon does not give the impressionthat the pilots wore much while in the air and at one point gives the impression that a pilot had his tunic and perhaps a few jumpers under it - at 15,000 feet? What appened to Sidcots?
I would not rate this as a truly great WW1 book. I read Yates' "Winged Victory" many years ago and was more impressed with that.

A splendid series begins, 04 Mar 2003
Robinson writes excellently here and in his other books about fliers in WW1 and WW2. Dark, funny and best of all unsentimental. I've just finished "A Damned Good Show" - easily as good as its predecessors - so unless he writes another one (come on Derek) I'll have to reread Goshawk and co. If this is your maiden flight with Hornet Squadron, you're very lucky.

A strong, bitter and tragic first novel, 24 Oct 2001
when I read this book I was surprised that it was first published in 1971,it still seems fresh, sharp and witty today. The story Robinson puts accross is of an inexperienced unit being kicked (quite literally)into shape by their bitter CO, Stanley Wooley. The novel is set in the closing months of the Great war and the reader really gets the sense of how weary all the characters must have been after four years of war. The descriptions of action in the air and life on the ground are convincing, and not giving too much away - the end was probably the best way to conclude a novel of this nature.

A WW1 Farce, 30 Sep 2008
This book seems to be more of a farce set in World War 1 than a serious war story. The dialogue between the squadron pilots is well written and amusing but the characters aren't well developed and I couldn't tell the difference between any of them, they were just names (although maybe this was the point....). There also seem to be several pointless sub plots that don't go anywhere. The author also doesn's seem to know too much about the aircraft he's based the book around, deriding it as slow when it was one of the fastest aircraft of the war and not seeming to know that it had a fuselage mounted gun as well as the wing mounted one. Little things but irritating.

Brutally black humoured tale of a war that's lost it's way., 26 Sep 2007
Life is cheap and short in this story of WW1 pilots. A sense of honour will get you killed. Expect nothing else. Marvellously taut and humourous. The bare bones of survival and death in war.

Good read but some silly innacuracies, 22 Jul 2005
For once I'm managing to get through a book in two days instead of the usual 3 weeks! It rolls and keeps my attention but irritaes with little rrors - not many but enough to take the gloss off.
Robinson's SE5a's are only armed with a Lewis gun on the top wing. The SE5a had a Vickers on the engine cowling in addition to the Lewis. The advantage of the Lewis was that it could be pulled back on its mount to fire upwards into and enemy when the attacker was below and behind his opponent.
Robinson gives a character the words "Shangri-La" to name a 'dream home'. Hilton's book "Lost Horizon" which gave the world the words Shangri-La was not published until 1933.
Robinso writes of Albatros D.III's in 1918 as if they were a real foe for an SE5a, surely they would have been up agaisnt Albatros DVs?
Robisnon does not give the impressionthat the pilots wore much while in the air and at one point gives the impression that a pilot had his tunic and perhaps a few jumpers under it - at 15,000 feet? What appened to Sidcots?
I would not rate this as a truly great WW1 book. I read Yates' "Winged Victory" many years ago and was more impressed with that.

A splendid series begins, 04 Mar 2003
Robinson writes excellently here and in his other books about fliers in WW1 and WW2. Dark, funny and best of all unsentimental. I've just finished "A Damned Good Show" - easily as good as its predecessors - so unless he writes another one (come on Derek) I'll have to reread Goshawk and co. If this is your maiden flight with Hornet Squadron, you're very lucky.

A strong, bitter and tragic first novel, 24 Oct 2001
when I read this book I was surprised that it was first published in 1971,it still seems fresh, sharp and witty today. The story Robinson puts accross is of an inexperienced unit being kicked (quite literally)into shape by their bitter CO, Stanley Wooley. The novel is set in the closing months of the Great war and the reader really gets the sense of how weary all the characters must have been after four years of war. The descriptions of action in the air and life on the ground are convincing, and not giving too much away - the end was probably the best way to conclude a novel of this nature.

Vintage Robinson, 10 May 2006
As the blurb under his photo states, Derek Robinson is best known for his RAF-based fiction, including the incomparable "Piece of Cake". The other Robinson trademeark is his dry witty conversation; a writing style so dessicated you would think it had come straight from Death Valley.

This is a self-contained story, but also part of a Trilogy containing the eralier works "The Eldorado Network" and "Artillery of Lies", and featuring Luis Cabrillo. Cabrillo's earlier adventures chronicled in these two books were based on the true story of the Double Cross system.

Here, the action moves on 8 years from the end of the Second World War and Luis has come to New York, flat broke, to look up an old girlfriend. He is soon back to his old tricks, aided and abetted by a cast of picaresque characters, some of whom (in another Robinson trademark) are only just introduced before meeting a sticky end.

The story zips along at a cracking pace, but Robinson also finds time for the period details (drawing, I supect, on his own time in America as an advertising executive). For example, he wonderfully evokes the age of the Ocean Liner in a description of the view from the Empire State Building, where the giant ships "nuzzle into their berths like piglets under their mother." This would never have occurred to this child of the 747 age.

Go and buy this - then, by hook or by crook, locate the earlier "Cabrillo" stories.

A WW1 Farce, 30 Sep 2008
This book seems to be more of a farce set in World War 1 than a serious war story. The dialogue between the squadron pilots is well written and amusing but the characters aren't well developed and I couldn't tell the difference between any of them, they were just names (although maybe this was the point....). There also seem to be several pointless sub plots that don't go anywhere. The author also doesn's seem to know too much about the aircraft he's based the book around, deriding it as slow when it was one of the fastest aircraft of the war and not seeming to know that it had a fuselage mounted gun as well as the wing mounted one. Little things but irritating.

Brutally black humoured tale of a war that's lost it's way., 26 Sep 2007
Life is cheap and short in this story of WW1 pilots. A sense of honour will get you killed. Expect nothing else. Marvellously taut and humourous. The bare bones of survival and death in war.

Good read but some silly innacuracies, 22 Jul 2005
For once I'm managing to get through a book in two days instead of the usual 3 weeks! It rolls and keeps my attention but irritaes with little rrors - not many but enough to take the gloss off.
Robinson's SE5a's are only armed with a Lewis gun on the top wing. The SE5a had a Vickers on the engine cowling in addition to the Lewis. The advantage of the Lewis was that it could be pulled back on its mount to fire upwards into and enemy when the attacker was below and behind his opponent.
Robinson gives a character the words "Shangri-La" to name a 'dream home'. Hilton's book "Lost Horizon" which gave the world the words Shangri-La was not published until 1933.
Robinso writes of Albatros D.III's in 1918 as if they were a real foe for an SE5a, surely they would have been up agaisnt Albatros DVs?
Robisnon does not give the impressionthat the pilots wore much while in the air and at one point gives the impression that a pilot had his tunic and perhaps a few jumpers under it - at 15,000 feet? What appened to Sidcots?
I would not rate this as a truly great WW1 book. I read Yates' "Winged Victory" many years ago and was more impressed with that.

A splendid series begins, 04 Mar 2003
Robinson writes excellently here and in his other books about fliers in WW1 and WW2. Dark, funny and best of all unsentimental. I've just finished "A Damned Good Show" - easily as good as its predecessors - so unless he writes another one (come on Derek) I'll have to reread Goshawk and co. If this is your maiden flight with Hornet Squadron, you're very lucky.

A strong, bitter and tragic first novel, 24 Oct 2001
when I read this book I was surprised that it was first published in 1971,it still seems fresh, sharp and witty today. The story Robinson puts accross is of an inexperienced unit being kicked (quite literally)into shape by their bitter CO, Stanley Wooley. The novel is set in the closing months of the Great war and the reader really gets the sense of how weary all the characters must have been after four years of war. The descriptions of action in the air and life on the ground are convincing, and not giving too much away - the end was probably the best way to conclude a novel of this nature.

Vintage Robinson, 10 May 2006
As the blurb under his photo states, Derek Robinson is best known for his RAF-based fiction, including the incomparable "Piece of Cake". The other Robinson trademeark is his dry witty conversation; a writing style so dessicated you would think it had come straight from Death Valley.

This is a self-contained story, but also part of a Trilogy containing the eralier works "The Eldorado Network" and "Artillery of Lies", and featuring Luis Cabrillo. Cabrillo's earlier adventures chronicled in these two books were based on the true story of the Double Cross system.

Here, the action moves on 8 years from the end of the Second World War and Luis has come to New York, flat broke, to look up an old girlfriend. He is soon back to his old tricks, aided and abetted by a cast of picaresque characters, some of whom (in another Robinson trademark) are only just introduced before meeting a sticky end.

The story zips along at a cracking pace, but Robinson also finds time for the period details (drawing, I supect, on his own time in America as an advertising executive). For example, he wonderfully evokes the age of the Ocean Liner in a description of the view from the Empire State Building, where the giant ships "nuzzle into their berths like piglets under their mother." This would never have occurred to this child of the 747 age.

Go and buy this - then, by hook or by crook, locate the earlier "Cabrillo" stories.

Derek Robinson does it again!, 28 May 2004
Damned good show is another witty, well written, well researched novel about bomber command from 1939-1941 and the very steep learning curve they experienced while bombing, mining and leafleting in the period. As well as the day to day life of 409 squadron, Robinson explores the broader arguments about strategic bombing, and the effectiveness of bomber commands efforts. At the beginning of the war, many predicted nations would collapse under the pressure of sustained aerial bombardment. Robinson's novel shows that they didn't and how the experts in Britain reacted to this reality.

Robinson has always had excellent characters in his novels, and there are some in Damned Good Show. For me these were Langham, Silk, Rafferty and the wonderfully sinister yet comical Flight Lieutenant "Black Mac" McHarg.In addition we learn more about one of Robinson's finest characters "Skull" Skelton. Other characters are just ciphers who move in and out of thr action, and are not there for long. There are references to other incidents in Robinsons novels, Hornets sting in particular.

Some have said this is "Derek Robinson by numbers" which I kind of agree with, but when the results are this good it seems churlish to complain!

Damned good show, 01 Feb 2004
Echoes of Deighton's 'Bomber' but with Robinsons usual dry laconic storytelling of very human characters in inhuman situations. Changes from hilarious to tragic, via wry, in a paragraph. One for the Robinson collection.

A Damned Good Read, 15 Apr 2003
"A Damned Good Show" is Derek Robinson's latest foray into WWII aviation fiction since "A Good Clean Fight" and I have to say that I was champing at the bit to get my hands on it. This time Robinson turns his attention to Bomber Command with a tale of an RAF Bomber Squadron during the opening years of the War. This is a good read and those familiar with Robinson's previous efforts will appreciate the wry black humour, fantastic inter-character banter and his realistic evocation of 1940's RAF squadron life. However in some ways maybe this is a little too typical of Robinson's work and seems almost slightly a "Derek Robinson by numbers" and hence is my reason for missing out on that fifth star. It is also slightly overshadowed by his earlier masterpieces such as "Piece of Cake" or "Goshawk Squadron". Robinson though is still streaks ahead of anyone else delving into the area of the war novel currently and I always look forward to the next Derek Robinson offering.

A witty, tragi-comic tale debunking Bomber Command myths, 08 Oct 2002
"Damned Good Show" explores the story of the fictional 409 Squadron RAF between the outbreak of war in 1939 and the end of Bomber Command's "learning" period, summer 1941. It covers the initial Phoney War leafleting, "Gardening" mine-dropping missions, and the commencement of more dangerous missions over Germany.

In this book Robinson attempts to do for Bomber Command what he did so brilliantly for Fighter Command in his novel "Piece of Cake" - strip away the legend and myth, and tell the story of ordinary young men in extraordinary circumstances. Readers familiar with Robinson's work will recognise at once his brisk, witty style. Conversation is a particular strength, as is his grasp of historical fact and the lengths to which he goes to get the details right, so that one can almost sit in the cockpit and sense what went through the minds of those men. That in my opinion he does not quite match the power of "Piece of Cake" is testament to its brilliance, rather than any detriment to this work, which is still a very good book.

Whilst being a good length, it is not as long as "Piece of Cake" or "A Good Clean Fight", which disappoints only in that the reader wants more. It also takes a little longer to get going than those two books, possibly due to the nature of the war at that time (which didn't really take off until May 1940). However readers of Robinson's other two WWII books will be pleased to see the reappearance, half way through the book, of a character familiar to them from those works, and who is up to his usual tricks of getting up the noses of Senior Officers by telling the truth, rather than what they want to hear.

This book is a wellcome addition to the library of anyone who enjoys intelligent, suprising, and witty fiction, and who wants to understand how Bomber Command's 1939-1941 experiences shaped the later Strategic Bombing Campaign.

Very highly recommended.

A WW1 Farce, 30 Sep 2008
This book seems to be more of a farce set in World War 1 than a serious war story. The dialogue between the squadron pilots is well written and amusing but the characters aren't well developed and I couldn't tell the difference between any of them, they were just names (although maybe this was the point....). There also seem to be several pointless sub plots that don't go anywhere. The author also doesn's seem to know too much about the aircraft he's based the book around, deriding it as slow when it was one of the fastest aircraft of the war and not seeming to know that it had a fuselage mounted gun as well as the wing mounted one. Little things but irritating.

Brutally black humoured tale of a war that's lost it's way., 26 Sep 2007
Life is cheap and short in this story of WW1 pilots. A sense of honour will get you killed. Expect nothing else. Marvellously taut and humourous. The bare bones of survival and death in war.

Good read but some silly innacuracies, 22 Jul 2005
For once I'm managing to get through a book in two days instead of the usual 3 weeks! It rolls and keeps my attention but irritaes with little rrors - not many but enough to take the gloss off.
Robinson's SE5a's are only armed with a Lewis gun on the top wing. The SE5a had a Vickers on the engine cowling in addition to the Lewis. The advantage of the Lewis was that it could be pulled back on its mount to fire upwards into and enemy when the attacker was below and behind his opponent.
Robinson gives a character the words "Shangri-La" to name a 'dream home'. Hilton's book "Lost Horizon" which gave the world the words Shangri-La was not published until 1933.
Robinso writes of Albatros D.III's in 1918 as if they were a real foe for an SE5a, surely they would have been up agaisnt Albatros DVs?
Robisnon does not give the impressionthat the pilots wore much while in the air and at one point gives the impression that a pilot had his tunic and perhaps a few jumpers under it - at 15,000 feet? What appened to Sidcots?
I would not rate this as a truly great WW1 book. I read Yates' "Winged Victory" many years ago and was more impressed with that.

A splendid series begins, 04 Mar 2003
Robinson writes excellently here and in his other books about fliers in WW1 and WW2. Dark, funny and best of all unsentimental. I've just finished "A Damned Good Show" - easily as good as its predecessors - so unless he writes another one (come on Derek) I'll have to reread Goshawk and co. If this is your maiden flight with Hornet Squadron, you're very lucky.

A strong, bitter and tragic first novel, 24 Oct 2001
when I read this book I was surprised that it was first published in 1971,it still seems fresh, sharp and witty today. The story Robinson puts accross is of an inexperienced unit being kicked (quite literally)into shape by their bitter CO, Stanley Wooley. The novel is set in the closing months of the Great war and the reader really gets the sense of how weary all the characters must have been after four years of war. The descriptions of action in the air and life on the ground are convincing, and not giving too much away - the end was probably the best way to conclude a novel of this nature.

Vintage Robinson, 10 May 2006
As the blurb under his photo states, Derek Robinson is best known for his RAF-based fiction, including the incomparable "Piece of Cake". The other Robinson trademeark is his dry witty conversation; a writing style so dessicated you would think it had come straight from Death Valley.

This is a self-contained story, but also part of a Trilogy containing the eralier works "The Eldorado Network" and "Artillery of Lies", and featuring Luis Cabrillo. Cabrillo's earlier adventures chronicled in these two books were based on the true story of the Double Cross system.

Here, the action moves on 8 years from the end of the Second World War and Luis has come to New York, flat broke, to look up an old girlfriend. He is soon back to his old tricks, aided and abetted by a cast of picaresque characters, some of whom (in another Robinson trademark) are only just introduced before meeting a sticky end.

The story zips along at a cracking pace, but Robinson also finds time for the period details (drawing, I supect, on his own time in America as an advertising executive). For example, he wonderfully evokes the age of the Ocean Liner in a description of the view from the Empire State Building, where the giant ships "nuzzle into their berths like piglets under their mother." This would never have occurred to this child of the 747 age.

Go and buy this - then, by hook or by crook, locate the earlier "Cabrillo" stories.

Derek Robinson does it again!, 28 May 2004
Damned good show is another witty, well written, well researched novel about bomber command from 1939-1941 and the very steep learning curve they experienced while bombing, mining and leafleting in the period. As well as the day to day life of 409 squadron, Robinson explores the broader arguments about strategic bombing, and the effectiveness of bomber commands efforts. At the beginning of the war, many predicted nations would collapse under the pressure of sustained aerial bombardment. Robinson's novel shows that they didn't and how the experts in Britain reacted to this reality.

Robinson has always had excellent characters in his novels, and there are some in Damned Good Show. For me these were Langham, Silk, Rafferty and the wonderfully sinister yet comical Flight Lieutenant "Black Mac" McHarg.In addition we learn more about one of Robinson's finest characters "Skull" Skelton. Other characters are just ciphers who move in and out of thr action, and are not there for long. There are references to other incidents in Robinsons novels, Hornets sting in particular.

Some have said this is "Derek Robinson by numbers" which I kind of agree with, but when the results are this good it seems churlish to complain!

Damned good show, 01 Feb 2004
Echoes of Deighton's 'Bomber' but with Robinsons usual dry laconic storytelling of very human characters in inhuman situations. Changes from hilarious to tragic, via wry, in a paragraph. One for the Robinson collection.

A Damned Good Read, 15 Apr 2003
"A Damned Good Show" is Derek Robinson's latest foray into WWII aviation fiction since "A Good Clean Fight" and I have to say that I was champing at the bit to get my hands on it. This time Robinson turns his attention to Bomber Command with a tale of an RAF Bomber Squadron during the opening years of the War. This is a good read and those familiar with Robinson's previous efforts will appreciate the wry black humour, fantastic inter-character banter and his realistic evocation of 1940's RAF squadron life. However in some ways maybe this is a little too typical of Robinson's work and seems almost slightly a "Derek Robinson by numbers" and hence is my reason for missing out on that fifth star. It is also slightly overshadowed by his earlier masterpieces such as "Piece of Cake" or "Goshawk Squadron". Robinson though is still streaks ahead of anyone else delving into the area of the war novel currently and I always look forward to the next Derek Robinson offering.

A witty, tragi-comic tale debunking Bomber Command myths, 08 Oct 2002
"Damned Good Show" explores the story of the fictional 409 Squadron RAF between the outbreak of war in 1939 and the end of Bomber Command's "learning" period, summer 1941. It covers the initial Phoney War leafleting, "Gardening" mine-dropping missions, and the commencement of more dangerous missions over Germany.

In this book Robinson attempts to do for Bomber Command what he did so brilliantly for Fighter Command in his novel "Piece of Cake" - strip away the legend and myth, and tell the story of ordinary young men in extraordinary circumstances. Readers familiar with Robinson's work will recognise at once his brisk, witty style. Conversation is a particular strength, as is his grasp of historical fact and the lengths to which he goes to get the details right, so that one can almost sit in the cockpit and sense what went through the minds of those men. That in my opinion he does not quite match the power of "Piece of Cake" is testament to its brilliance, rather than any detriment to this work, which is still a very good book.

Whilst being a good length, it is not as long as "Piece of Cake" or "A Good Clean Fight", which disappoints only in that the reader wants more. It also takes a little longer to get going than those two books, possibly due to the nature of the war at that time (which didn't really take off until May 1940). However readers of Robinson's other two WWII books will be pleased to see the reappearance, half way through the book, of a character familiar to them from those works, and who is up to his usual tricks of getting up the noses of Senior Officers by telling the truth, rather than what they want to hear.

This book is a wellcome addition to the library of anyone who enjoys intelligent, suprising, and witty fiction, and who wants to understand how Bomber Command's 1939-1941 experiences shaped the later Strategic Bombing Campaign.

Very highly recommended.

A WW1 Farce, 30 Sep 2008
This book seems to be more of a farce set in World War 1 than a serious war story. The dialogue between the squadron pilots is well written and amusing but the characters aren't well developed and I couldn't tell the difference between any of them, they were just names (although maybe this was the point....). There also seem to be several pointless sub plots that don't go anywhere. The author also doesn's seem to know too much about the aircraft he's based the book around, deriding it as slow when it was one of the fastest aircraft of the war and not seeming to know that it had a fuselage mounted gun as well as the wing mounted one. Little things but irritating.

Brutally black humoured tale of a war that's lost it's way., 26 Sep 2007
Life is cheap and short in this story of WW1 pilots. A sense of honour will get you killed. Expect nothing else. Marvellously taut and humourous. The bare bones of survival and death in war.

Good read but some silly innacuracies, 22 Jul 2005
For once I'm managing to get through a book in two days instead of the usual 3 weeks! It rolls and keeps my attention but irritaes with little rrors - not many but enough to take the gloss off.
Robinson's SE5a's are only armed with a Lewis gun on the top wing. The SE5a had a Vickers on the engine cowling in addition to the Lewis. The advantage of the Lewis was that it could be pulled back on its mount to fire upwards into and enemy when the attacker was below and behind his opponent.
Robinson gives a character the words "Shangri-La" to name a 'dream home'. Hilton's book "Lost Horizon" which gave the world the words Shangri-La was not published until 1933.
Robinso writes of Albatros D.III's in 1918 as if they were a real foe for an SE5a, surely they would have been up agaisnt Albatros DVs?
Robisnon does not give the impressionthat the pilots wore much while in the air and at one point gives the impression that a pilot had his tunic and perhaps a few jumpers under it - at 15,000 feet? What appened to Sidcots?
I would not rate this as a truly great WW1 book. I read Yates' "Winged Victory" many years ago and was more impressed with that.

A splendid series begins, 04 Mar 2003
Robinson writes excellently here and in his other books about fliers in WW1 and WW2. Dark, funny and best of all unsentimental. I've just finished "A Damned Good Show" - easily as good as its predecessors - so unless he writes another one (come on Derek) I'll have to reread Goshawk and co. If this is your maiden flight with Hornet Squadron, you're very lucky.

A strong, bitter and tragic first novel, 24 Oct 2001
when I read this book I was surprised that it was first published in 1971,it still seems fresh, sharp and witty today. The story Robinson puts accross is of an inexperienced unit being kicked (quite literally)into shape by their bitter CO, Stanley Wooley. The novel is set in the closing months of the Great war and the reader really gets the sense of how weary all the characters must have been after four years of war. The descriptions of action in the air and life on the ground are convincing, and not giving too much away - the end was probably the best way to conclude a novel of this nature.

A WW1 Farce, 30 Sep 2008
This book seems to be more of a farce set in World War 1 than a serious war story. The dialogue between the squadron pilots is well written and amusing but the characters aren't well developed and I couldn't tell the difference between any of them, they were just names (although maybe this was the point....). There also seem to be several pointless sub plots that don't go anywhere. The author also doesn's seem to know too much about the aircraft he's based the book around, deriding it as slow when it was one of the fastest aircraft of the war and not seeming to know that it had a fuselage mounted gun as well as the wing mounted one. Little things but irritating.

Brutally black humoured tale of a war that's lost it's way., 26 Sep 2007
Life is cheap and short in this story of WW1 pilots. A sense of honour will get you killed. Expect nothing else. Marvellously taut and humourous. The bare bones of survival and death in war.

Good read but some silly innacuracies, 22 Jul 2005
For once I'm managing to get through a book in two days instead of the usual 3 weeks! It rolls and keeps my attention but irritaes with little rrors - not many but enough to take the gloss off.
Robinson's SE5a's are only armed with a Lewis gun on the top wing. The SE5a had a Vickers on the engine cowling in addition to the Lewis. The advantage of the Lewis was that it could be pulled back on its mount to fire upwards into and enemy when the attacker was below and behind his opponent.
Robinson gives a character the words "Shangri-La" to name a 'dream home'. Hilton's book "Lost Horizon" which gave the world the words Shangri-La was not published until 1933.
Robinso writes of Albatros D.III's in 1918 as if they were a real foe for an SE5a, surely they would have been up agaisnt Albatros DVs?
Robisnon does not give the impressionthat the pilots wore much while in the air and at one point gives the impression that a pilot had his tunic and perhaps a few jumpers under it - at 15,000 feet? What appened to Sidcots?
I would not rate this as a truly great WW1 book. I read Yates' "Winged Victory" many years ago and was more impressed with that.

A splendid series begins, 04 Mar 2003
Robinson writes excellently here and in his other books about fliers in WW1 and WW2. Dark, funny and best of all unsentimental. I've just finished "A Damned Good Show" - easily as good as its predecessors - so unless he writes another one (come on Derek) I'll have to reread Goshawk and co. If this is your maiden flight with Hornet Squadron, you're very lucky.

A strong, bitter and tragic first novel, 24 Oct 2001
when I read this book I was surprised that it was first published in 1971,it still seems fresh, sharp and witty today. The story Robinson puts accross is of an inexperienced unit being kicked (quite literally)into shape by their bitter CO, Stanley Wooley. The novel is set in the closing months of the Great war and the reader really gets the sense of how weary all the characters must have been after four years of war. The descriptions of action in the air and life on the ground are convincing, and not giving too much away - the end was probably the best way to conclude a novel of this nature.

Vintage Robinson, 10 May 2006
As the blurb under his photo states, Derek Robinson is best known for his RAF-based fiction, including the incomparable "Piece of Cake". The other Robinson trademeark is his dry witty conversation; a writing style so dessicated you would think it had come straight from Death Valley.

This is a self-contained story, but also part of a Trilogy containing the eralier works "The Eldorado Network" and "Artillery of Lies", and featuring Luis Cabrillo. Cabrillo's earlier adventures chronicled in these two books were based on the true story of the Double Cross system.

Here, the action moves on 8 years from the end of the Second World War and Luis has come to New York, flat broke, to look up an old girlfriend. He is soon back to his old tricks, aided and abetted by a cast of picaresque characters, some of whom (in another Robinson trademark) are only just introduced before meeting a sticky end.

The story zips along at a cracking pace, but Robinson also finds time for the period details (drawing, I supect, on his own time in America as an advertising executive). For example, he wonderfully evokes the age of the Ocean Liner in a description of the view from the Empire State Building, where the giant ships "nuzzle into their berths like piglets under their mother." This would never have occurred to this child of the 747 age.

Go and buy this - then, by hook or by crook, locate the earlier "Cabrillo" stories.

Derek Robinson does it again!, 28 May 2004
Damned good show is another witty, well written, well researched novel about bomber command from 1939-1941 and the very steep learning curve they experienced while bombing, mining and leafleting in the period. As well as the day to day life of 409 squadron, Robinson explores the broader arguments about strategic bombing, and the effectiveness of bomber commands efforts. At the beginning of the war, many predicted nations would collapse under the pressure of sustained aerial bombardment. Robinson's novel shows that they didn't and how the experts in Britain reacted to this reality.

Robinson has always had excellent characters in his novels, and there are some in Damned Good Show. For me these were Langham, Silk, Rafferty and the wonderfully sinister yet comical Flight Lieutenant "Black Mac" McHarg.In addition we learn more about one of Robinson's finest characters "Skull" Skelton. Other characters are just ciphers who move in and out of thr action, and are not there for long. There are references to other incidents in Robinsons novels, Hornets sting in particular.

Some have said this is "Derek Robinson by numbers" which I kind of agree with, but when the results are this good it seems churlish to complain!

Damned good show, 01 Feb 2004
Echoes of Deighton's 'Bomber' but with Robinsons usual dry laconic storytelling of very human characters in inhuman situations. Changes from hilarious to tragic, via wry, in a paragraph. One for the Robinson collection.

A Damned Good Read, 15 Apr 2003
"A Damned Good Show" is Derek Robinson's latest foray into WWII aviation fiction since "A Good Clean Fight" and I have to say that I was champing at the bit to get my hands on it. This time Robinson turns his attention to Bomber Command with a tale of an RAF Bomber Squadron during the opening years of the War. This is a good read and those familiar with Robinson's previous efforts will appreciate the wry black humour, fantastic inter-character banter and his realistic evocation of 1940's RAF squadron life. However in some ways maybe this is a little too typical of Robinson's work and seems almost slightly a "Derek Robinson by numbers" and hence is my reason for missing out on that fifth star. It is also slightly overshadowed by his earlier masterpieces such as "Piece of Cake" or "Goshawk Squadron". Robinson though is still streaks ahead of anyone else delving into the area of the war novel currently and I always look forward to the next Derek Robinson offering.

A witty, tragi-comic tale debunking Bomber Command myths, 08 Oct 2002
"Damned Good Show" explores the story of the fictional 409 Squadron RAF between the outbreak of war in 1939 and the end of Bomber Command's "learning" period, summer 1941. It covers the initial Phoney War leafleting, "Gardening" mine-dropping missions, and the commencement of more dangerous missions over Germany.

In this book Robinson attempts to do for Bomber Command what he did so brilliantly for Fighter Command in his novel "Piece of Cake" - strip away the legend and myth, and tell the story of ordinary young men in extraordinary circumstances. Readers familiar with Robinson's work will recognise at once his brisk, witty style. Conversation is a particular strength, as is his grasp of historical fact and the lengths to which he goes to get the details right, so that one can almost sit in the cockpit and sense what went through the minds of those men. That in my opinion he does not quite match the power of "Piece of Cake" is testament to its brilliance, rather than any detriment to this work, which is still a very good book.

Whilst being a good length, it is not as long as "Piece of Cake" or "A Good Clean Fight", which disappoints only in that the reader wants more. It also takes a little longer to get going than those two books, possibly due to the nature of the war at that time (which didn't really take off until May 1940). However readers of Robinson's other two WWII books will be pleased to see the reappearance, half way through the book, of a character familiar to them from those works, and who is up to his usual tricks of getting up the noses of Senior Officers by telling the truth, rather than what they want to hear.

This book is a wellcome addition to the library of anyone who enjoys intelligent, suprising, and witty fiction, and who wants to understand how Bomber Command's 1939-1941 experiences shaped the later Strategic Bombing Campaign.

Very highly recommended.

A WW1 Farce, 30 Sep 2008
This book seems to be more of a farce set in World War 1 than a serious war story. The dialogue between the squadron pilots is well written and amusing but the characters aren't well developed and I couldn't tell the difference between any of them, they were just names (although maybe this was the point....). There also seem to be several pointless sub plots that don't go anywhere. The author also doesn's seem to know too much about the aircraft he's based the book around, deriding it as slow when it was one of the fastest aircraft of the war and not seeming to know that it had a fuselage mounted gun as well as the wing mounted one. Little things but irritating.

Brutally black humoured tale of a war that's lost it's way., 26 Sep 2007
Life is cheap and short in this story of WW1 pilots. A sense of honour will get you killed. Expect nothing else. Marvellously taut and humourous. The bare bones of survival and death in war.

Good read but some silly innacuracies, 22 Jul 2005
For once I'm managing to get through a book in two days instead of the usual 3 weeks! It rolls and keeps my attention but irritaes with little rrors - not many but enough to take the gloss off.
Robinson's SE5a's are only armed with a Lewis gun on the top wing. The SE5a had a Vickers on the engine cowling in addition to the Lewis. The advantage of the Lewis was that it could be pulled back on its mount to fire upwards into and enemy when the attacker was below and behind his opponent.
Robinson gives a character the words "Shangri-La" to name a 'dream home'. Hilton's book "Lost Horizon" which gave the world the words Shangri-La was not published until 1933.
Robinso writes of Albatros D.III's in 1918 as if they were a real foe for an SE5a, surely they would have been up agaisnt Albatros DVs?
Robisnon does not give the impressionthat the pilots wore much while in the air and at one point gives the impression that a pilot had his tunic and perhaps a few jumpers under it - at 15,000 feet? What appened to Sidcots?
I would not rate this as a truly great WW1 book. I read Yates' "Winged Victory" many years ago and was more impressed with that.

A splendid series begins, 04 Mar 2003
Robinson writes excellently here and in his other books about fliers in WW1 and WW2. Dark, funny and best of all unsentimental. I've just finished "A Damned Good Show" - easily as good as its predecessors - so unless he writes another one (come on Derek) I'll have to reread Goshawk and co. If this is your maiden flight with Hornet Squadron, you're very lucky.

A strong, bitter and tragic first novel, 24 Oct 2001
when I read this book I was surprised that it was first published in 1971,it still seems fresh, sharp and witty today. The story Robinson puts accross is of an inexperienced unit being kicked (quite literally)into shape by their bitter CO, Stanley Wooley. The novel is set in the closing months of the Great war and the reader really gets the sense of how weary all the characters must have been after four years of war. The descriptions of action in the air and life on the ground are convincing, and not giving too much away - the end was probably the best way to conclude a novel of this nature.

Derek Robinson does it again!, 28 May 2004
Damned good show is another witty, well written, well researched novel about bomber command from 1939-1941 and the very steep learning curve they experienced while bombing, mining and leafleting in the period. As well as the day to day life of 409 squadron, Robinson explores the broader arguments about strategic bombing, and the effectiveness of bomber commands efforts. At the beginning of the war, many predicted nations would collapse under the pressure of sustained aerial bombardment. Robinson's novel shows that they didn't and how the experts in Britain reacted to this reality.

Robinson has always had excellent characters in his novels, and there are some in Damned Good Show. For me these were Langham, Silk, Rafferty and the wonderfully sinister yet comical Flight Lieutenant "Black Mac" McHarg.In addition we learn more about one of Robinson's finest characters "Skull" Skelton. Other characters are just ciphers who move in and out of thr action, and are not there for long. There are references to other incidents in Robinsons novels, Hornets sting in particular.

Some have said this is "Derek Robinson by numbers" which I kind of agree with, but when the results are this good it seems churlish to complain!

Damned good show, 01 Feb 2004
Echoes of Deighton's 'Bomber' but with Robinsons usual dry laconic storytelling of very human characters in inhuman situations. Changes from hilarious to tragic, via wry, in a paragraph. One for the Robinson collection.

A Damned Good Read, 15 Apr 2003
"A Damned Good Show" is Derek Robinson's latest foray into WWII aviation fiction since "A Good Clean Fight" and I have to say that I was champing at the bit to get my hands on it. This time Robinson turns his attention to Bomber Command with a tale of an RAF Bomber Squadron during the opening years of the War. This is a good read and those familiar with Robinson's previous efforts will appreciate the wry black humour, fantastic inter-character banter and his realistic evocation of 1940's RAF squadron life. However in some ways maybe this is a little too typical of Robinson's work and seems almost slightly a "Derek Robinson by numbers" and hence is my reason for missing out on that fifth star. It is also slightly overshadowed by his earlier masterpieces such as "Piece of Cake" or "Goshawk Squadron". Robinson though is still streaks ahead of anyone else delving into the area of the war novel currently and I always look forward to the next Derek Robinson offering.

A witty, tragi-comic tale debunking Bomber Command myths, 08 Oct 2002
"Damned Good Show" explores the story of the fictional 409 Squadron RAF between the outbreak of war in 1939 and the end of Bomber Command's "learning" period, summer 1941. It covers the initial Phoney War leafleting, "Gardening" mine-dropping missions, and the commencement of more dangerous missions over Germany.

In this book Robinson attempts to do for Bomber Command what he did so brilliantly for Fighter Command in his novel "Piece of Cake" - strip away the legend and myth, and tell the story of ordinary young men in extraordinary circumstances. Readers familiar with Robinson's work will recognise at once his brisk, witty style. Conversation is a particular strength, as is his grasp of historical fact and the lengths to which he goes to get the details right, so that one can almost sit in the cockpit and sense what went through the minds of those men. That in my opinion he does not quite match the power of "Piece of Cake" is testament to its brilliance, rather than any detriment to this work, which is still a very good book.

Whilst being a good length, it is not as long as "Piece of Cake" or "A Good Clean Fight", which disappoints only in that the reader wants more. It also takes a little longer to get going than those two books, possibly due to the nature of the war at that time (which didn't really take off until May 1940). However readers of Robinson's other two WWII books will be pleased to see the reappearance, half way through the book, of a character familiar to them from those works, and who is up to his usual tricks of getting up the noses of Senior Officers by telling the truth, rather than what they want to hear.

This book is a wellcome addition to the library of anyone who enjoys intelligent, suprising, and witty fiction, and who wants to understand how Bomber Command's 1939-1941 experiences shaped the later Strategic Bombing Campaign.

Very highly recommended.