| warren bruhn | 12 Dec 2012 6:45 p.m. PST |
After looking around for the last few years in the hopes of finding some of the Biggles books by Capt. William Earl Johns, which I had never read or seen, I finally found a few at a local library. Am now reading Biggles Learns to Fly. Cracking stuff! Wish there were more copies about here in the USA. |
| advocate | 13 Dec 2012 2:42 a.m. PST |
I grew up reading Biggles books, and I never knew what the 'W.E.' stood for. |
| infman | 13 Dec 2012 2:56 a.m. PST |
I've kept a lot from when I was a kid. My 2 boys are starting to read them now. Wings of Glory is on the way for Christmas. The books are so old that they don't even have a printing date. They must be well over 50 years old now. I still read them from time to time. They've been re-published in Aus as omnibus editions with 3 books in each. |
| Huscarle | 13 Dec 2012 3:31 a.m. PST |
The Biggles books set in WWI are by far the best, some are available for kindle too.
If you can, get the biography of William Earl Johns; contains many of the stories that enter the WWI Biggles tales. Originally issued as "By Jove Biggles" link
reissued as Biggles! The Life Story of Capt. W. E. Johns, Creator of Biggles, Worrals, Gimlet & Steeley.
link |
| Frothers Did It And Ran Away | 13 Dec 2012 3:31 a.m. PST |
I read them for the first time about 5 or 6 years ago. In Britain they only get mentioned to mock them and the "stiff upper lip" ethos people assume they represent. I was surprised by the WW1 adventures especially in which it's made quite plain that Biggles' nerves have been shredded by constant peril and the stories are quite tough in their own way. I remember really liking the one where an underage recruit joins Biggles' squadron and Biggles himself only plays a supporting role. |
| Big Martin Back | 13 Dec 2012 3:35 a.m. PST |
I had one as a present when I was quite young and bought myself a few more at the time. When I cleared out my late father's house I rediscovered them and this has got me looking whenever we go to car boot sales and the like. I'm slowly building up my collection. I did spot a few in the Oxfam charity bookshop near us, but they wanted a serious price for them when I only want to give a £ or two. |
 David Manley  | 13 Dec 2012 4:34 a.m. PST |
I'm not sure if they are out of copyright otr not, but a friend dropped me a CD with 90 titles in Epub format. So what with that and a complete set of Hornblower books on my Kobo I have enough reading material to last me for ages! |
 20thmaine | 13 Dec 2012 7:40 a.m. PST |
Quite a few have been republished in the UK by Red Fox (IIRC), and there are several omnibus editions with 4 titles bound together in one big book. Should be able to get all these via amazon etc. And I'd agree that the WW one titles are the best – Biggles isn't this uber buch stiff upper lipped racist of common parody – he's a slight, nervy figure with slender fingered "girls" hands. Turns to drink to calm his nerves at one point. And he often makes clear in the later books that he's blind to colour – only decency of action is of interest to him. Later books are still pretty good – liked the world war 2 ones as well although there was a tendency to plot repetition. We wanted to read "Biggles – kleptomaniac" as it seemed in every book he'd end up stealing someone elsze's aeroplane at least once. This peaked in "Biggles defends the desert" where it was necessary to stop and sketch out who was in whom's plane as Biggles had a stolen plane, ginger had a stolen plane and the escaped german prisoner had a stolen plane…leading to much confusion. |
| Dave Jackson | 13 Dec 2012 8:18 a.m. PST |
The Imperial War Museum in London seels them, but, postage might be a bit prohibitive link |
| parrskool | 13 Dec 2012 8:55 a.m. PST |
Look on Amazon for the latest reprints ! All the WW1 books are there. |
| AzSteven | 13 Dec 2012 10:58 a.m. PST |
Oh my – I have to be careful if I ever get to London and the Imperial War Museum – I will eithe rneed three empty suitcases for books, or I will need to ship a HUGE pile of them home. |
| Cardinal Hawkwood | 13 Dec 2012 5:02 p.m. PST |
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| JCD1964 | 13 Dec 2012 10:56 p.m. PST |
Biggles's lesser known cousin Algernon actually has a set of WW1 Aerial wargames rules named after him. |
| Cardinal Hawkwood | 14 Dec 2012 4:45 a.m. PST |
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| Bellbottom | 14 Dec 2012 6:01 a.m. PST |
I remember when he did a 'flash' past in 'Biggles Flies Open' |
| Old Slow Trot | 14 Dec 2012 8:19 a.m. PST |
Looks like a Fokker D-VII going down. |
| Pyrate Captain | 14 Dec 2012 4:30 p.m. PST |
Anyone ever see the movie? |
| Abwehrschlacht | 16 Dec 2012 9:15 a.m. PST |
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| The Young Guard | 16 Dec 2012 2:03 p.m. PST |
I read in a rather good non fiction book that W.E Johns was sent home in the war for catching a rather nasty disease from a lady of the night!!! I did find this overly amusing for some morbid reason. |
| warren bruhn | 18 Dec 2012 6:30 p.m. PST |
Pyrate, you mean that 80's movie, "Biggles: Adventures in Time"? I watched it a few years ago. The time travel bit from the 80's back to WW1 wasn't great. In fact, the whole movie wasn't great. But it did introduce me to the character and make me curious about the books. I'm reading "Biggles Flies East" in Red Fox edition right now. Biggles isn't really liking espionage. He finds it pretty scary and nerve wracking. The lack of sex in the books certainly sets them apart from modern literature. |
| 20thmaine | 21 Dec 2012 7:22 a.m. PST |
The lack of sex in the books certainly sets them apart from modern literature. They were meant to be books for boys. So, apart from the occassional very slight romantic interest, sex was pretty much going to be ignored. |
| parrskool | 21 Dec 2012 10:16 a.m. PST |
There was a TV series in the late 50's/ 60's with Neville Whiting as Biggles….. as I recall. |
's first experience with 1:4800 scale naval models.
