| Title | Publisher & Date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Tobin Takes Off (Paperback) | Mayflower (17-May-1973) | 978-05831 21941 |
| Tobin Takes Off (Kindle & Paperback) | White Marvel Books (30-Sep-2023) | 979-88628 82056 |
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MARKS OUT OF 10 FOR THE COVER
Russ looks understandably smug after his season in the sun - his bags are packed but the obligatory semi-naked Blonde (who looks vaguely familiar) is giving him those bed-me eyes. She knows that there's always time for one last bout of TOBIN before the Plane leaves...
COVER NOTES
PAPERBACK EDITION
Take off Tobin, and see how it feels. "Oh this is terrible!" she gasped, collapsing against the pillow. "Awful" I agreed, fighting for breath. "We can't keep this up - we'll KILL ourselves". "At least" . "We'll probably fall down dead in the street. Too much lovin'." "I can see it now. Russ Tobin, star of hit TV commercials, was found in a crumpled heap in Oxford Street today. Post-mortem revealed a strain equal to running up Mt. Everest six times carrying a fully grown bullock!"
Take it all off, Russ, and have yourself a ball - you have nothing to lose but your genes!
2023 KINDLE EDITION
It's 1973 and Russ Tobin is finishing his season as a Holiday Courier in Majorca. Utter exhaustion is no barrier for Russ when it comes to another adventure and this time he's ready to set sail on the RMS Windsor Castle, bound for Africa!
A job working on Safari beckons, but first he has to navigate the oceans, and the crazy shipmates he finds himself on board with!
Will the voyage be quite the relaxing time he hopes for, or will he just be lucky to arrive in one piece?
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PLOT
The story opens on Friday 4th November (NB the 4th November fell on a Friday in 1966 - the leap year in 1972 meant that it didn't fall on a Friday again until 1977! So either a) Stan is having a little joke with us b) Stan wasn't really paying all that much attention or c) The story is maybe set in 1966 (doubtful)....maybe Russ was just so tired from the summer's non-stop shagging that he got it wrong!) Anyway - maybe we're taking this all a bit too seriously. If you like time-line weirdness - check out the review of Tobin Down Under...
Back to the plot. Russ decides to try for the Safari Courier job, spends his last night in Majorca in Jail and eventually arrives back in London with Patrick on 5th November. (NB The first quarter of the book is still set in Majorca, which means there is almost as much Majorca action as in "The Courier") Once in London, they stay at the Phoenix Hotel just off the Bayswater Road (this appears to be a real place. The Phoenix Hotel is near Bayswater Station and looks very nice!) and they meet up with Tony Dane again who drags them along to a party held by the latest pop-sensation, Albert Chutney (real name: Horatio Death!). Albert is a true scouser and Russ bonds with him over this, doing "translation" of his thick accent during an interview. Anyway - Russ gets the Safari job starting 1st December - so with time to kill he takes a cruise down to Africa, leaving November 11th (Trivia alert! That's the day after Stan's birthday) and arriving in Durban on November 28th. I've always thought it odd that he doesn't actually "Take Off" therefore - the book should, by rights, be called "Tobin Sets Sail". But then that doesn't have quite the same figurative significance, and technically he does fly from Durban to Nairobi after he docks, so we'll let Stan off I think.
Other points to note. Russ sails to Durban on RMS Windsor Castle, a luxury liner that ran a regular service between Southampton and Durban via Las Palmas and Cape Town between 1960 and 1977. The description of the journey as a First Class passenger is very detailed and a wonderful historical document of the steamliner era. Russ stays in 1st Class B Deck Cabin 60.
On Page 38 Russ encounters an aggressive gorilla which is very reminiscent of those in Stan's Michael Morgan book "Octopus Hill".
On Page 118 when Russ is discussing his love-life philosophy with Tania, he yet again states how much he respects the women he is intimate with. "I have never flown at the first light of dawn. If I felt it was likely, I wouldn't go to bed with the girl in the first place". While this is clearly true of most of his relationships, it's fair to say that his brief fling with the wild thing Ellaleen on Page 174 doesn't exactly tick that box. He seems to know before, during and after that it's a very bad idea! See also his quickie with Clarisa at the party in "Come Again Courier" (he allows her to believe that he's someone else deliberately so she can't track him down afterwards!) and Caroline Courtney in the same book. He clearly doesn't especially like either of these women at all..