Yet Another Biggles Site (YABS) - Updates

Biggles Learns to Fly

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:21:05 -0500

updated edition: Hardback, 203pp. Black boards with titles on spine only. Dustjacket by Andrew Skilleter. Illustrations throughout stories from original publication.

Contains 12 stories, using text from the original publication in Modern Boy April - June 1934.

Limited edition of 300 numbered copies.

Biggles Learns to Fly

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:16:54 -0500

updated edition: Reprint, number 388420 on spine. 160pp, same nine b/w illustrations as Armada editions. New version of the knight logo top centre of front cover. "The very first Biggles adventure" on red stripe across bottom right of front cover. ISBN 0 340 38842 0. Price £1.99.

Biggles Learns to Fly

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:16:34 -0500

updated edition: Reprint. Number 388420 on spine. 160pp, same nine b/w illustrations as Armada editions. "Biggles - now starring in a major film" on red stripe across bottom right of front cover. ISBN 0 340 38842 0. Price £1.95.

Biggles Learns to Fly

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:16:12 -0500

updated edition: Paperback, 160pp, same nine b/w illustrations as Armada editions. 'Biggles now starring in a major film' on red stripe across bottom right corner of front cover. ISBN 0-340-38842-0, spine 388420. Price £1.75.

Biggles Learns to Fly

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:15:33 -0500

updated edition: 160pp, dustjacket, with black boards and gold titles on the spine only. Same nine b/w illustrations as Armada editions. Dustjacket photo copyright BBC. ISBN 0 7278 0592 4. Price £3.75. ISBN (0727805924)

Biggles Learns to Fly

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:15:09 -0500

updated edition: #469 by Flying Officer WE Johns. Contains 12 short stories. A 4 penny weekly paperback edition containing the one Johns story.

Biggles Learns to Fly

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:14:45 -0500

updated edition: 204pp, cover illustration by FABA/NORMA, no other illustrations. Has been reprinted at least 10 times. 10th printing has "Red Fox" in white square on front cover. ISBN 0 09 993820 0. Price 2nd printing £3.50, 10th printing £3.99.

Biggles in Mexico

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:52:25 -0500

updated review: Better than average. slightly unusual book on several fronts. firstly, there is virtually no flying at all by any of the characters. secondly, there is plenty happening but the book feels more laid-back and slower-paced. probably because biggles spends lots of time sitting on the patio waiting for the story to come to him. but we have some staple elements too - the captain loves desert settings, and it's usually ginger staggering around them in danger of dying of thirst. we also get the unexpected torrential down-pour, and yet another sprained ankle. we get quintessential mexican stereotypes, bad-guys are killed via snake-bite or gunfire, and Erich makes his post-iron-curtain debut. overall, an entertaining tale. how Biggles supplied an acceptable story to the mexican police to account for a trail of dead people without disclosing the true facts remains a mystery though.

The Boy Biggles

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:23:21 -0500

updated review: a juvenile Biggles begins his lifelong run-ins with danger of both the animal and human kind. documenting his first dozen years or so in a remote part of India, he learns to shoot fast, act fast and think fast. taken in conjunction with Biggles Goes To School, this is Johns attempt to paint the backstory of his hero. entertaining, but very lightweight.

Biggles in the Terai

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:21:02 -0500

updated review: I liked this one. Johns wrote a few Biggles books set in India and they work well. This tale roles along very nicely, it feels like some of the earlier, better stories. we have assassins in the night, attempted murder by reptile, mysterious aircraft, remote landing grounds, amputees, a nepalese Shikari who shoots at aircraft and of course the main theme of a badly injured Algy in need of rescuing. Very entertaining. The lads also make a jump into modernity by suddenly flying jet fighters! The only disconcerting bit is when Biggles notes "As Ram Singh said, if a man is wearing long trousers how can you tell what he has inside them?" err, quite!

Biggles Flies East

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:33:35 -0500

updated review: I love this book for you have no idea basically who it is until the end. I love the introduction to Von Stalhien. I do not get the ending though because Von Stahien was meant to be dead!

Biggles Fails to Return

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:13:05 -0500

updated review: fantastic story. great plotlines, excellent descriptive work and non-stop action. undercover work is always well done by Johns, and this one is no exception. plus, in a great bonus, we not only have Ginger falling for a local lass in a big way, but there's a hint that biggles might have done likewise with the princess. and then there's some humuorous ribbing dished out about the whole thing, mainly towards ginger. it all adds an element of realism to the characters and it's a pity that johns steered away from it again in subsequent books. one also wonders whether this was the defining book in johns mind that pointed towards bertie becoming the permanent 4th member of the team in the post-war series. and of course, there is the unfathomable paradox when read with Takes Charge regarding Algy's past history with Monaco. All in all, a great title with a distinctly different feel from many biggles books.

Biggles Forms a Syndicate

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:09:55 -0500

updated review: Possibly the most mysterious tale of the series. No, not the story itself, but rather the opening salvo. Dizzy Digswell, of four-two-four squadron arrives on Biggles doorstep with a tall tale. dizzy had a reputation in the service of being mad. ginger informs the lads that he doesn't recall the guy. "it was before your time", says biggles. Ahh, so 424 squadron must have been WW1. Not so, as bertie gives ginger the news "in which case, dear boy, you missed some lively entertainment"!!! err, so what exactly is going on here? doubtless, even the captain didn't know. how such a glaring chronological error ever got through is impossible to say. anyway, we move on from there on yet another treasure-hunt for ancient artifacts in a reasonably interesting story. bertie and dizzy are entombed for 4 days. ginger does an impression of a medical orderly, we get some quaint sterotypical language from a Sheik and in the end the lads get some old coins and an archeological find. the bad guy (incredibly shallow in development) gets away largely scott free.

Biggles and the Plot that Failed

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 23:06:05 -0500

updated review: entertaining return to a location that johns usually does well. the prologue even mentions the events from the Flies South prologue, yet strangely there's no sense of the characters having been to that area before. the descriptions are excellent, the plot moves along nicely. only the ending seems a little anti-climatic. the villain sekunder receives a nasty hand-shake from a huge scorpion, but never really pays for his treachery and in the end is allowed to wander off into where-ever. a good read for one of the later series titles.