Biggles

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The dust jacket of an early 1970s edition of Johns' Biggles, Pioneer Air Fighter

James Bigglesworth, better known in flying circles as "Biggles", is a fictional pilot and adventurer created by W. E. Johns.

He first appeared in the story "The White Fokker", published in the first issue of Popular Flying magazine, in 1932. The first collection of Biggles stories, The Camels are Coming, was published that same year. The series was continued until the author's death in 1968, eventually spanning nearly a hundred volumes - including novels and short story collections - most, but not all, of the latter with a common setting and time frame.

Contents

[edit] Biggles and his creator

Biggles first appears as a teenaged scout (fighter) pilot in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) during World War I. He has joined the RFC in 1916 at the young age of 17, having conveniently "lost" his birth certificate.

W.E. Johns was himself a First World War pilot, although his own career did not parallel that of Biggles particularly closely. There are however some episodes in the WW1 Biggles stories which may be autobiographical. The author's initial war service was with the infantry – fighting at Gallipoli and on the Macedonian front. He was commissioned, and seconded into the RFC in September 1917 and posted back to England for flight training, serving in England as a flying instructor until August 1918 when he transferred to the Western Front. On 16 September 1918 his De Havilland DH4 was shot down on a bombing raid. His observer, Lieutenant Amey, was killed (as, in two of the stories in Biggles Learns to Fly are observers flying with Biggles) but Johns survived to be taken prisoner of war. Johns remained with the RAF until 1927, although his final rank was only Flying Officer (equivalent to Lieutenant in the the RFC) rather than Captain.

While the purpose of the Biggles stories was to entertain adolescent boys, in the First World War Biggles stories Johns paid attention to historical detail and helped recreate the primitive days of early air combat — when pilots often died in their first combat and before devices such as respirators and parachutes had become practical. Various models on which the Biggles character might have been based have been suggested - including Cyril Lowe and Albert Ball - the truth may be that he is a composite, drawn from several famous pilots of the era.

The bulk of the Biggles books are however set post-WWI and after Johns' own flying career was over. Biggles has an unusually lengthy career, flying a number of aircraft representative of the history of British military aviation, from Sopwith Camels during World War I, Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine Spitfires in World War II, right up to the Hawker Hunter jet fighter in a postwar adventure (Biggles in the Terai). In these later books geographic and historical accuracy is rather less evident, and the sometimes rather grim detail of the first stories is moderated, in deference to the increasing popularity of the Biggles books with a younger audience than the older adolescents at which they were initially targetted.

[edit] Biggles' "early life"

According to stories in The Boy Biggles and Biggles goes to School, James Bigglesworth was born in India in May 1899, the son of an administrator in the Indian Civil Service and his wife (née Lacey). James was the younger of two sons, Charles being the elder by five years. The young James had little contact with European culture, and commenced a lifelong affection for India, befriending the local Indian boys, exploring the countryside and learning to speak fluent Hindi. He retained a lifetime gift for languages, and as an adult spoke French and German fluently, with a "fair command" of various other languages.

However, he did spend holidays in England, with an eccentric uncle and inventor who lived in rural Norfolk.

He then attended Malton Hall School in Hertbury, England. His first encounter with an aircraft was with a Blériot that was forced to land on the school cricket ground.

[edit] First World War

Biggles left school and initially joined the army as a subaltern in the Rifle Regiment in 1916. He transferred to the RFC and learned to fly in the summer of 1916, at No. 17 Flying Training School, which was at Settling, Norfolk, flying solo after two hours of instruction. He then attended No. 4 'School of Fighting' in Frensham, Lincolnshire.[1]

Posted to France with just 15 hours solo, he first flew in combat in September 1916 with 169 Squadron, RFC, (commanded by Major Paynter). His observer was another youth named Mark Way, a New Zealander. Biggles began flying the FE2 "pusher", and later the Bristol F2B. In late summer 1917, he was transferred to 266 Squadron RFC, commanded by a Dubliner, Major Mullen. With 266 Squadron, Biggles flew the Sopwith Pup and the famed Sopwith Camel, developing a friendly rivalry with 'Wilks' (Captain Wilkinson) and the S.E.5’s of 287 squadron and forming a close friendship with his young cousin Algy (the Hon. Algernon Montgomery Lacey). A study of the short stories featuring his World War I exploits, suggests that he claimed at least 32 kills, and was shot down or crash-landed eight times. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, and the Military Cross and bar.

[edit] Between the Wars

After the Great War, Biggles' adventures as a freelance charter pilot took him around the world in an unidentified amphibian named the "Vandal" (often illustrated on covers, anachronistically, as either a Supermarine Walrus or Supermarine Sea Otter). His partners in these adventures grew when he and Algy met young Ginger (Hebblethwaite) while foiling a possible Russian plot against Britain (in The Black Peril). Ginger brought the energy and daring of youth to these, and many of their later, adventures. Between the wars Biggles and his small team mix their own escapades with ventures on behalf of British Secret Service.

[edit] Second World War

Biggles returned to service in World War II, initially with a Supermarine S6B type machine in the Baltic and then to defy the Nazis and their allies in Norway [2]. He then took up his post as Commanding Officer of 666 Squadron, RAF, a Special Duties squadron that fought in the Battle of Britain before being sent around the world on specific assignments. Bertie (Lord Bertram Lissie) joined the team at this time.

[edit] Special Air Police

After World War II, Biggles takes up a role as head of the new Special Air Police division of Scotland Yard under the command of his old chief, Air Commodore Raymond. With Algy, Ginger and Bertie making up the flying squad, they take on criminals who have taken to the air, both at home in Britain and around the globe. The team fly a wide variety of machines, with Auster and Percival types doing much of the work.

Biggles's greatest opponent is the German spy officer Erich von Stalhein. They first meet in Biggles Flies East, when Biggles acts as a spy in the Middle East in World War I, where Biggles has some narrow escapes. Von Stalhein returns as an adversary in numerous other adventures. As the Cold War begins, Von Stalhein enters the services of the Communist bloc, until his former masters imprison him on the island of Sakhalin, from where Biggles helps him escape (in Biggles Buries a Hatchet, 1958). After Von Stalhein settles in London, he and Biggles remain in touch. Biggles looks back (1965) reunites Biggles with Marie.

Johns continued writing Biggles short stories and novels up until his death in 1968; in all, nearly 100 Biggles books were published.

A final unfinished novel Biggles does some homework shows Biggles at last preparing to retire, and meeting his replacement - who is mixed-race. The 12 chapters written were issued privately in 1997.[3]

[edit] Female characters

In the Biggles stories, female characters appear occasionally. However, despite brief affairs, Biggles and his chums remain steadfastly single. Biggles suffered a disappointment in World War I, when he fell in love with German spy Marie Janis in the short story "Affaire de Coeur" (affair of the heart, set in 1918); he later rescues her from Czechoslovakia in Biggles Looks Back. In one book Biggles is described as preferring cigarettes to women.

In Biggles Fails to Return (1943), Ginger falls in love with the sister of the French pilot who has flown Biggles into France on a secret mission, and at the end of the story Ginger gets to spend several weeks in her company while awaiting transport back to England. The young Ginger is also smitten by the beautiful Polynesian girl, Full Moon, in Biggles in the South Seas (1940).

There is a discussion of the issue of Biggles, sex and alcohol in By Jove, Biggles: The Life of Captain W.E. Johns (1981) by Peter Berresford Ellis and Piers Williams.

In the 1950s, a popular Australian radio version of Biggles was made under licence. Johns did not write the scripts and apparently ended the contract after receiving complaints from young readers that the storyline had made Biggles "go soft" by taking up a blonde female lover.

Another female character appears in the form of Worrals (Flight Officer Joan Worralson), eponymous heroine of a related series of books featuring this resourceful and "plucky" member of the WAAF. A further Johns creation, the commando Captain Lorrington "Gimlet" King, also features in a series of books that intersect with Biggles at times.

[edit] Criticism and controversies

[edit] Time

Different Biggles books are set within a time period of over 50 years – this produces a number of credibility difficulties, especially for older readers.

Though Biggles and his friends age in the books, they do so much more slowly (and inconsistently) than appears historically credible. By some kind of chronological licence Biggles and his chums appear to age about one year in every four - at least from around 1925 onward.

Even within a bracket of stories set in the same time frame there are some chronological inconsistencies. Algy, for instance, seems to be younger than Biggles to a degree that is impossible, at least by the ordinary calendar. Biggles first meets Algy in The Camels are Coming, at the end of which the First World War ends. However, Algy also features throughout Biggles in France, so the whole of Biggles in France must be set during the second half of The Camels are Coming. It is doubtful whether a careful reading of the various WW1 stories could result in a coherent sequence.

While the author succeeds in chronicling developments in aviation technology, social and cultural changes are much more difficult. The cultural and social world of Biggles (whether that of the 1930s or some earlier period) does not persist completely unchanged through the whole series – for instance, in an early book, the evidence points to an English nobleman as the perpetrator, but Biggles can dismiss this out of hand as the gentry would never commit a crime; in a later novel, one of the gentry is the villain. Nonetheless, the social context of the books, viewed in chronological order, does become increasingly old-fashioned, even anachronistic, especially in those works set after WWII.

[edit] Quaint language

The Biggles books are also sometimes criticised for the author's choice of vocabulary: which can appear quaint or ill-chosen to contemporary readers. Two notorious examples are "opine", and "ejaculate". The first of these is still current, if rather unusual, but generally means to "hold an opinion" or "believe" rather than Johns' sense of "to express an opinion". To "ejaculate" in the Biggles books is merely a synonym for to "exclaim". The image that this use of the word produces is presumably unintentional. Johns' use of "opine" and "ejaculate" in fact appears to be nothing more than a way of avoiding over-use of the word "said" in passages of conversation. Biggles and his chums also employ a fair smattering of early twentieth century British slang.

[edit] Racism

One feature of social change between the 1930s and the 1960s (and between the 1960s and the early 21st century for that matter) has been a considerable shift in attitudes to race and ethnicity. During the 1960s a perception of Biggles as unacceptably racially prejudiced led to the books being removed from libraries and recommended children’s reading lists around the world. There is some justification for this perception, although a flat dismissal of the books as racist is probably simplistic.

The Biggles character himself was brought up in India, speaks fluent Hindi, and has a number of Indian friends and colleagues. In Biggles Goes to School, on one occasion when ordered to write lines in Latin he remarks that he would rather do so in Hindi – the clear implication being that the two languages are comparable in importance (or even that Hindi might with advantage replace Latin in English schools). On one occasion the adult Biggles asserts to Air Commodore Raymond that "while men are decent to me I try to be decent to them, regardless of race, colour, politics, creed or anything else"[4].

Furthermore, while individually developed non-white characters are rather infrequent, when they do occur, they are usually "positive", from the Oxford-educated Chinaman, Li Chi, in Biggles Flies Again and the perky Polynesian girl, Full Moon, in Biggles In The South Seas, to Alexander MacKay, a part-Native American (Red Indian) nicknamed "Minnie" who joins "the chums" as a valued colleague, and is in fact set to inherit Biggles' job in Biggles Does Some Homework. It has been pointed out, however, that the positive characteristics of these protagonists tend to be such features as relatively light complexions, Western educations, and general usefulness to our (white) hero and his friends and allies. [5]

It is unfortunate that when Johns wishes to present an unpleasant "foreigner" he will quite often drop a gratuitous and offensive hint that the person involved is of mixed race. Much worse is the way non-whites taken en masse are sometimes demonised. With the evil "Chungs" of Biggles Hits the Trail and the sub-human "Aboriginals" of Biggles in Australia, in particular: Johns succumbs to the popular tendency, typical of his time, to apply unpleasant stereotyping to non-white opponents of his hero, in terms that can only be described as hysterical. Another book, Biggles in Borneo, stereotypes Dayak "headhunters" as barely human "savages", even though they are in fact Biggles' allies against the Japanese. The specific books mentioned above would in fact find very few defenders, and are typical of a genre of fiction for young people that was once common. [6]

Interestingly, Biggles Delivers the Goods (published just three years after Biggles in Borneo) repeats its basic plotline so closely that it is impossible to escape the conclusion that the later novel is essentially intended as a revision of the earlier one. In both books Biggles establishes a secret airfield behind Japanese lines which is discovered and attacked by the Japanese before the chums and their allies can achieve their objectives, Algy is captured by the Japanese and threatened with execution by a brutal Japanese commandant, and rubber (as an important strategic material) figures largely. All ends well in both novels, as a massive air attack relieves the brave defenders of the airfield and defeats the Japanese. The protagonists are also closely paralleled in both novels, although in Biggles Delivers the Goods Li Chi (originally from a short story in Biggles Flies Again) reappears to take the place of a white character from the earlier version, and the headhunters, while still milked for "exotic colour" are much more sympathetically treated. In any case the later novel reads much more pleasantly from this point of view than the earlier version, while telling essentially the same story.

[edit] Suitability for children?

The early Biggles stories and novels, especially those set in WWI, were apparently written mainly for older adolescents. Death is treated rather frequently and sometimes in quite a grim fashion, and other "adult themes" are also touched on - for instance, on at least one occasion Biggles sets out on a mission with "red mist", inspired by the death of a comrade. The emotional strain of combat is also realistically described, as Biggles becomes a "highly-strung" fidgeting pale youth, lacking his usual sense of humour. In these stories, in particular, alcohol is mentioned occasionally and cigarettes are much in evidence.

By the time the early WWI-based books were reprinted the Biggles books were much more popular among younger children, and some editing took place to render them more suitable to a younger audience, and to bring them more into line with the later novels and stories. In one story a case of whisky becomes a case of lemonade bottles, resulting in the rather quaint idea of squadrons risking their lives for a prize of fizzy pop.[7]

The stories contain no strong swearing and no explicit sexual content, and British values of bravery, honesty and fair play are stressed. Romantic storylines, which would have bored his younger readers and embarrassed the older ones were also omitted, with only the very occasional exception.

[edit] Biggles in later popular culture

The cover of the 1952 hardback edition of Johns' Biggles Delivers The Goods

The books are a common target for collectors, with some titles fetching high prices, especially the handful that were deleted before being reprinted into paperback. The rarest title, Biggles and the Deep Blue Sea, has been known to fetch $1,000 on eBay.

Most of the Biggles books are out of print, but Red Fox (a Random House imprint) is reprinting many of the titles, with footnotes added to explain the slang and military terms.

Biggles was parodied in a series of skits on the 1970s British comedy television show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, including one titled "Biggles Dictates a Letter".[8] In the sketch, Biggles behaves in a naive and overreactive manner about the sexual orientation of his fellow comrades, shooting Algy in the process. "Cardinal Biggles", complete with flying helmet and goggles, assists in the interrogations in the Spanish Inquisition sketch. Text stories in the "Papperbok" included "Biggles Flies Down". There have been many other references in film and literature. The fictional title Biggles Flies Undone was mentioned in the "Biggles Dictates a Letter", but it was never produced. In the first Comic Relief, Michael Palin read the skit "Biggles Goes to See Bruce Springsteen". A customer in The Bookshop Sketch, found on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album, requests the fictitious "Biggles Combs his Hair".

In 2005, the British television show Doctor Who created a Biggles-based character called Captain Jack, for the episode "The Empty Child".[9] The Captain had adopted the persona of an RAF volunteer, and had a friend called Algy; a nod to W.E. Johns' creation.

Biggles appeared in a short-lived 1960 TV series based on the books with Neville Whiting playing the title role.

He was also featured in a 1986 feature film called Biggles: Adventures in Time, directed by John Hough with Neil Dickson in the title role. The film attempted to add appeal to the character by adding a science fiction element, but it was a commercial and critical failure. Dickson reprised the character in all but name, in the Pet Shop Boys' feature film, It Couldn't Happen Here.

Biggles - The Authorised Biography by John Pearson, published in 1978, added new and embellished elements to the character's history, including the ageing Biggles' (apparent) suicide in a vintage Spitfire circa 1970. A4 format cartoon adventures in which the Biggles characters use a mix of vintage and modern aircraft were published in the 1980s.

The lyrics of the Jethro Tull song, "Thick As a Brick", has a line that mentions Biggles ("So, where the hell was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?"). Additionally, Biggles is mentioned several times in the elaborate album cover, which is a parody of a local British newspaper, most significantly in a story entitled "Do Not See Me Rabbit".

In an episode of Top Gear, the "tame racing driver" known as The Stig was introduced with the line: "Let's hand the old crate over to our resident test pilot—Stiggles!". In a later episode, where Clarkson was driving and his two colleagues were flying, he referred to them as "Algy and Ginger".

Biggles Recounts the Falklands War, by D. Chauvin, M. Uderzo, B. Asso and J. Rideau appeared in 2007.

In 1983, the Australian Commonwealth government used RAAF aircraft to take surveillance photos of a then-controversial part of Tasmania, resulting in the Attorney-General Gareth Evans being memorably nicknamed "Biggles".

In 1986, a Biggles computer game was released by Mirrorsoft for the platforms Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.[10]

In the Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman novel Good Omens, Aziraphale collects a book titled Biggles Goes to Mars.[citation needed]

A number of Biggles characters appear in Kim Newman's alternate history novel The Bloody Red Baron. A large number of the characters are vampires and the Germans fight for Count Dracula in an alternate World War I.

In the Red Dwarf season 3 episode Marooned, Lister burns a book owned by Rimmer entitled Biggles Learns to Fly to stay warm while stranded on a hostile moon. Rimmer admits that the book is not art.

In the episode "The Queen's Birthday Present" from the British series The Thin Blue Line, Inspector Fowler talks about the great authors he reads, including Sir Walter Scott and W.M. Thackeray. His partner, Sergeant Dawkins replies, "You haven't read any Walter Scott in years! Or any flipping Thackeray. You read Biggles books!"

In Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz,Major Yu provides Alex with some Biggles books,including Biggles Investigates

[edit] Biggles comics

There have been many different versions of comics about Biggles published in different countries in Europe.

He appeared in his first "annual" in 1980

Some albums were released in 1990 featuring the Biggles team.[11] The titles are separate from the books though they cover the same war or after war investigation operations of Biggles.

In India, Euro Books a division of Euro Kids International Ltd. published 14 titles of the Biggles Series along with compilations of the same in 2007.

Wiki letter w.svg This section requires expansion.

[edit] List of Biggles books

  1. The Camels Are Coming (1932)
  2. The Cruise of the Condor (1933)
  3. Biggles of the Camel Squadron (1934)
  4. Biggles Flies Again (1934)
  5. Biggles Learns to Fly (1935)
  6. The Black Peril (1935)
  7. Biggles Flies East (1935)
  8. Biggles in France (1935)
  9. Biggles & Co (1936)
  10. Biggles in Africa (1936)
  11. Biggles - Air Commodore (1937)
  12. Biggles Flies West (1937)
  13. Biggles Flies South (1938)
  14. Biggles Goes to War (1938)
  15. The Rescue Flight (1939)
  16. Biggles in Spain (1939)
  17. Biggles Flies North (1939)
  18. Biggles - Secret Agent (1940)
  19. Biggles in the Baltic (1940)
  20. Biggles in the South Seas (1940)
  21. Biggles Defies the Swastika (1941)
  22. Biggles Sees It Through (1941)
  23. Spitfire Parade (1941)
  24. Biggles Hits the Trail (1941)
  25. Biggles in the Jungle (1942)
  26. Biggles Sweeps the Desert (1942)
  27. Biggles - Charter Pilot (1943)
  28. Biggles in Borneo (1943)
  29. Biggles Fails to Return (1943)
  30. Biggles in the Orient (1945)
  31. Biggles Delivers the Goods (1946)
  32. Sergeant Bigglesworth CID (1947)
  33. Biggles' Second Case (1948)
  34. Biggles Hunts Big Game (1948)
  35. Biggles Takes a Holiday (1948)
  36. Biggles Breaks the Silence (1949)
  37. Biggles Gets His Men (1950)
  38. Another Job for Biggles (1951)
  39. Biggles Goes to School (1951)
  40. Biggles Works It Out (1952)
  41. Biggles Takes the Case (1952)
  42. Biggles Follows On (1952)
  43. Biggles - Air Detective (1952)
  44. Biggles and the Black Raider (1953)
  45. Biggles in the Blue (1953)
  46. Biggles in the Gobi (1953)
  47. Biggles of the Special Air Police (1953)
  48. Biggles Cuts It Fine (1954)
  49. Biggles and the Pirate Treasure (1954)
  50. Biggles Foreign Legionnaire (1954)
  51. Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter (1954)
  52. Biggles in Australia (1955)
  53. Biggles' Chinese Puzzle (1955)
  54. Biggles of 266 (1956)
  55. No Rest for Biggles (1956)
  56. Biggles Takes Charge (1956)
  57. Biggles Makes Ends Meet (1957)
  58. Biggles of the Interpol (1957)
  59. Biggles on the Home Front (1957)
  60. Biggles Presses On (1958)
  61. Biggles on Mystery Island (1958)
  62. Biggles Buries a Hatchet (1958)
  63. Biggles in Mexico (1959)
  64. Biggles' Combined Operation (1959)
  65. Biggles at the World's End (1959)
  66. Biggles and the Leopards of Zinn (1960)
  67. Biggles Goes Home (1960)
  68. Biggles and the Poor Rich Boy (1960)
  69. Biggles Forms a Syndicate (1961)
  70. Biggles and the Missing Millionaire (1961)
  71. Biggles Goes Alone (1962)
  72. Orchids for Biggles (1962)
  73. Biggles Sets a Trap (1962)
  74. Biggles Takes It Rough (1963)
  75. Biggles Takes a Hand (1963)
  76. Biggles' Special Case (1963)
  77. Biggles and the Plane That Disappeared (1963)
  78. Biggles Flies to Work (1963)
  79. Biggles and the Lost Sovereigns (1964)
  80. Biggles and the Black Mask (1964)
  81. Biggles Investigates (1964)
  82. Biggles Looks Back (1965)
  83. Biggles and the Plot That Failed (1965)
  84. Biggles and the Blue Moon (1965)
  85. Biggles Scores a Bull (1965)
  86. Biggles in the Terai (1966)
  87. Biggles and the Gun Runners (1966)
  88. Biggles Sorts It Out (1967)
  89. Biggles and the Dark Intruder (1967)
  90. Biggles and the Penitent Thief (1967)
  91. Biggles and the Deep Blue Sea (1967)
  92. The Boy Biggles (1968)
  93. Biggles in the Underworld (1968)
  94. Biggles and the Little Green God (1969)
  95. Biggles and the Noble Lord (1969)
  96. Biggles Sees Too Much (1970)
  97. Biggles Does Some Homework (1997)
  98. Biggles Air Ace: The Uncollected Stories (1999)
  • Comrades in Arms (1968) included one Biggles story, plus stories of Gimlet and Worrals - other creations of Johns

Johns died while still writing Biggles Does Some Homework. Although never completed, it was released as a strictly limited edition of 300 copies in paperback. A further limited print run of 300 hardback copies have been printed in 2007 by Norman Wright publishing.

  • Biggles- The Authorized Biography -John Pearson (Hamlyn 1978)

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Biggles Learns to Fly
  2. ^ Biggles Defies the Swastika: 1941
  3. ^ Online plot summary
  4. ^ Biggles Delivers the Goods, Hodder & Stoughton, 4th ed, 1951 p12.
  5. ^ Milner, David:Children and Race, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1975 – pp. 224-225
  6. ^ See Milner for other examples
  7. ^ "The Balloonatics"; Biggles of the Special Air Police
  8. ^ Biggles: dictates a letter
  9. ^ Doctor Who (2005): The Empty Child (1) - TV.com
  10. ^ Biggles - MobyGames
  11. ^ Miklo & Lombard Biggles Comic Albums

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggles"