War Story [Hardcover]

Derek Robinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 1988

'Derek Robinson does for the Royal Flying Corps what the War Poets did for frontline soldiers' - Daily Telegraph 'Beneath the insolent wit and ludicrous happenings is a novel essentially serious, whose full impact may be felt only in afterthought' - Sunday Times 'The descriptions of patrolling and aerial combat are superlatively well done...Stronger tastes will relish the whiff of battiness and brimstone.' - Times Literary Supplement Written by the Booker nominated author, Derek Robinson.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1916 Oliver Paxton, very young and only recently awarded his wings, ferries a plane to France and hopes for glory in the Great War. Assigned to the Hornet Squadron, his attitudes make him something of an outcast; and the varied views of war and duty lead to his being grounded for a time. Breakdowns, deaths, and pressure at first cannot dim Paxton's determination to do or die for England. When a comrade dies Paxton finally comes to accept the futility and insanity of war. The author has succeeded in creating a cast of fascinating characters and takes them through riveting incidents of battle and self-examination. There is humor here, too. An excellent novel. Robert H. Donahugh, Youngstown and Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Derek Robinson is an accomplished author of military fiction and has been nominated for the Booker Prize. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (March 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394563891
• ISBN-13: 978-0394563893
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,505,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first rate story of air combat in world war one, October 20, 1999

By 

Richard Willis "Java Fan" (Amsterdam) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: War Story (Hardcover)

An excellent book which is sadly out of print. The story and characters met here also appear in Goshawk Squadron and Hornets Nest. This book gives a real feel of what it must have been like to fly and fight in the air in World War One. Like many of Derek Robinsons books it contains a combination of humour and horror. The relatively comfortable lives of the pilots on the ground is thrown into stark relief with the danger and discomfort of their lives in the air. I can highly recommend it

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent character study of the effects of war, August 11, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: War Story (Hardcover)

War Story is the first in a trilogy of sorts. It begins the saga of Hornet Squadron in World War One (it is continued in Piece of Cake and A Good Clean Fight which take place during World War Two (by the same author)). All three books are character focused rather than the usual war fiction standard of being action based - though the dogfighting scenes are incredibly well done. Take All Quiet on the Western front, put the action in Airplanes, and add excellent, and sometimes hilarious, dialog, and you have War Story.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It takes no great skill to die, no skill at all..., October 18, 2008

By 

R. Sundquist (Madison, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cassell Military Classics: War Story (Cassell Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

WAR STORY is Derek Robinson's masterpiece. It is better than PIECE OF CAKE, which was filmed in 1988 for LWT, and it is better than GOSHAWK SQUADRON, which was nominated for the Booker Prize in 1971. It is simply an excellent novel every bit the equal of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT or CATCH-22.

Unlike Robinson's other wartime aviation novels, this one gives us a single character to focus most of our attention on. Paxton is a young pilot, fresh from flight school, who thinks that the First World War is the greatest thing to ever happen to the world. He is longing for the chance to sink his teeth into the enemy and come home a hero. Instead he makes a mess of his very first mission -- to lead six replacement planes across the channel -- and becomes an air-gunner, paired with a cynical veteran pilot. He witnesses the Battle of the Somme, which he thinks is a great opportunity for the British cavalry to show their stuff. He meets a rich English girl who throws extravagant parties for the soldiers, and he boasts to her about the Germans he's killed.

Watching him butt heads with the more experienced pilots is perhaps the major conflict of the book, and a great well of black comedy. Paxton simply doesn't understand why no one else seems to be having a good time. He even argues with his pilot in midair. But no one can remain unchanged forever, which Paxton discovers by the end of the book.

The rest of Hornet Squadron is not left out. We are introduced to Kellaway -- who will reappear in PIECE OF CAKE and A GOOD CLEAN FIGHT in the next war; Cleve-Cutler, the new commanding officer who fortifies his pilots with Hornet's Sting, a potent mix of every type of booze imaginable; and Corporal Lacey, a public school-educated clerk, who tells us, "It takes no great skill to die. No skill at all, in fact. Thoroughly unqualified people do it all the time."

Until Robinson began writing, fiction of this sort was limited to the adventures of Biggles, hero of boy's-own pulp magazines. GOSHAWK SQUADRON changed that, and thank heaven. WAR STORY, by the end, is more moving and more focused than Robinson's other novels. It is funny and tragic in equal measure. Read it.