Derek Robinson

Derek Robinson (born 12 April 1932) is a British author best known for his military aviation novels full of black humour. He has also written several books on some of the more sordid events in the history of Bristol, his home town, as well as guides to rugby. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1971 for his first novel, Goshawk Squadron.After attending Cotham Grammar School, Robinson served in the Royal Air Force as a fighter plotter, during his National Service. He has a history degree from Cambridge University, where he attended Downing College, has and worked in advertising in the UK and the US and as a broadcaster on radio and television. He was a qualified rugby referee for more than thirty years and is a life member of Bristol Society of Rugby Referees. He was married in 1964.Following his research of historical records for his novel Piece of Cake (1983), Robinson became convinced that it was the supremacy of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom's coastal waters that caused Adolf Hitler to postpone invasion plans and not the Battle of Britain, as commonly accepted.