Biggles Flies North
Biggles goes to the aid of his old friend Wilks in protecting an airline operation in remote Canada.
Wilks had setup an airline servicing a remote goldmine. The bad guys muscled in in order to be in a permission to steal the mine's takings. Biggles and co help keep Wilks in operation and thwart the gang's plans, earning the mine's gratitude and future business as a result.
Reviews
| jason |   (6)it's a decent story, this one. but it never grabbed me in the way the three other "cardinal points stories" did. where East had a gritty tension and machiavellian feel to it, and South and West rang with outrageous boys-own-adventure action, Flies North felt a little flat. The three comrades head for North America to lend a hand to Wilkes (biggles' old war-time sparring partner) in a gold transportation company, where they run into a crooked set-up of thugs. there's a fair amount of action, with ginger solidifying his position of johns' go-to character, but it just lacks the magic of a couple of other between-the-wars tales. I haven't gone back to read it too often, i guess that indicates it's so-so appeal. [edit my review] |
| bertie | (8) Biggles receives a letter from a desperate Wilks, last heard of in the Bolivian Air Force, but now running Arctic Airways in Canada. He's being run out town by a gang of crooks, who are muscling in on his airline, which provides transportation to the gold mining concerns in the frozen north. Biggles hops on a boat and is pretty quickly on the spot with Ginger, Algy and Smyth in tow. They clash with the toughs as soon as they land, and I can't think of anyone tougher in all the stories than Brindle McBain. They play dirty, faking landing lights, machine gunning aircraft, stealing gold, dealing out murder, and even stooping to shooting up a man's Bovril by James! This story is very palatable, but unusual in that Biggles is more the victim of events here, and barely hanging on to control of the situation. It seems that the first half of the book is trying to get the title to the airfield, and the second half is trying to prevent themselves from being lynched for murder. The Ginger flees and saves the day device, last seen in Biggles Goes To War, is here again. Algy is incredibly brave for a brief paragraph, doing some wing walking to trim up an out of control Rockheed. Good book, always memorable. Not a lot of wildlife to squeeze in, in frozen Canada, but we do get a polar bear or two - apparently they're delicious. [edit my review] |
| Steve | (6) A decent enough story of adventure and skulduggery in Canada's frozen north. A couple of twists in the tale with Ginger, once again, saving the day at the last hour. The only disappointment is that the only mentions of the local fauna are when Biggles and Ginger are shooting it! [edit my review] |