Biggles Takes a Hand, by W. E. Johns
Post-Biggles Buries a Hatchet, Biggles gets a mysterious letter asking him to come to lunch. Who can it be from? He doesn't give out his address to anyone!
...anyone except, apparently, his favorite ex-spy, who skulks in wearing a fake beard and sunglasses for ~reasons~. I mean, he does have reasons, but there were ways to accomplish what he wanted without sending anonymous letters and wearing a fake beard. It seems pretty clear that von Stalhein missed Biggles and missed being a spy. They're on extremely friendly terms in this book, though not as intimate as they get later on.
Von Stalhein explains that notorious assassins have been spotted in his favorite German restaurant, and he thought Biggles should know. Relatedly, he's concerned about the Roths, the family of a German official he knew, who was recently executed in a purge; he had a wife and two children, who will certainly be killed if they don't manage to escape, but there's nothing von Stalhein can do to help them. Biggles proceeds to ignore all orders, entreaties, and naysaying from British intelligence in order to pursue the lead and protect the people von Stalhein wished could be protected.
Unusually, this book doesn't involve any piloting and all flying is done by getting tickets on commercial aircraft, which means there's a lot of action around dealing with customs, being picked up at the airport, spies buying tickets and following them onboard, etc. Biggles justifies this as "It isn't worthwhile [to fly myself]. I might as well let someone else do the work." But it causes them so much trouble that it absolutely would have been worthwhile to use their own planes. I think Johns just wanted to mix it up a bit.
Biggles flies straight to Berlin, fails to find the Roths, but does locate Anna, the fiancee of older son Moritz Roth, and takes her back to London. The rest of the plot proceeds as a thriller version of a comedy of errors, as everyone runs around searching for people and missing the people who are searching for them. There's some nice action but no spectacular set-pieces. The best bits are character moments, like Algy getting a little caretaking after he gets roughed up and the crew interacting with Anna.
At one point Anna has a letter sent to her father which might or might not contain useful information; she's hesitant to open and read it as that's clearly a thing that is not done. Biggles wants her to open it, and she'll do it if he outright tells her to, but he refuses to do so. He'll lay out for her why he thinks she should do it, but says it's ultimately her choice.
In such a huge and not always internally consistent series, one thing that comes up a lot is how insistent Biggles is on allowing people to make their own choices. He'll try to persuade them, but he won't force them. We see this with von Stalhein over a very long period of time. It even comes up very early on, when Biggles is a teenager and way less mature in many ways, he deals with a young pilot who panicked, fled a battle, and says he can't fight again. Rather than telling him he has to or to push through his fear, Biggles talks to him very kindly and says it's ultimately his choice.
The letter, when opened, does have important information but is also a very touching character moment.
( Read more... )
I was pleased to see a very sympathetic, non-stereotypical Jewish character in a small but key role; I strongly suspect that at some point before writing this book, Johns met an actual Jew. Relatedly, this book is extremely sympathetic to refugees and persecuted people in general.
Other than that, my favorite bit was von Stalhein in a fake beard, giving Biggles a tip like a cat presents its favorite person with a mouse. I wish we could have gotten the scene where von Stalhein meets up with the Roths. It happens but off-page, and I'm sure it's quite touching.
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...anyone except, apparently, his favorite ex-spy, who skulks in wearing a fake beard and sunglasses for ~reasons~. I mean, he does have reasons, but there were ways to accomplish what he wanted without sending anonymous letters and wearing a fake beard. It seems pretty clear that von Stalhein missed Biggles and missed being a spy. They're on extremely friendly terms in this book, though not as intimate as they get later on.
Von Stalhein explains that notorious assassins have been spotted in his favorite German restaurant, and he thought Biggles should know. Relatedly, he's concerned about the Roths, the family of a German official he knew, who was recently executed in a purge; he had a wife and two children, who will certainly be killed if they don't manage to escape, but there's nothing von Stalhein can do to help them. Biggles proceeds to ignore all orders, entreaties, and naysaying from British intelligence in order to pursue the lead and protect the people von Stalhein wished could be protected.
Unusually, this book doesn't involve any piloting and all flying is done by getting tickets on commercial aircraft, which means there's a lot of action around dealing with customs, being picked up at the airport, spies buying tickets and following them onboard, etc. Biggles justifies this as "It isn't worthwhile [to fly myself]. I might as well let someone else do the work." But it causes them so much trouble that it absolutely would have been worthwhile to use their own planes. I think Johns just wanted to mix it up a bit.
Biggles flies straight to Berlin, fails to find the Roths, but does locate Anna, the fiancee of older son Moritz Roth, and takes her back to London. The rest of the plot proceeds as a thriller version of a comedy of errors, as everyone runs around searching for people and missing the people who are searching for them. There's some nice action but no spectacular set-pieces. The best bits are character moments, like Algy getting a little caretaking after he gets roughed up and the crew interacting with Anna.
At one point Anna has a letter sent to her father which might or might not contain useful information; she's hesitant to open and read it as that's clearly a thing that is not done. Biggles wants her to open it, and she'll do it if he outright tells her to, but he refuses to do so. He'll lay out for her why he thinks she should do it, but says it's ultimately her choice.
In such a huge and not always internally consistent series, one thing that comes up a lot is how insistent Biggles is on allowing people to make their own choices. He'll try to persuade them, but he won't force them. We see this with von Stalhein over a very long period of time. It even comes up very early on, when Biggles is a teenager and way less mature in many ways, he deals with a young pilot who panicked, fled a battle, and says he can't fight again. Rather than telling him he has to or to push through his fear, Biggles talks to him very kindly and says it's ultimately his choice.
The letter, when opened, does have important information but is also a very touching character moment.
( Read more... )
I was pleased to see a very sympathetic, non-stereotypical Jewish character in a small but key role; I strongly suspect that at some point before writing this book, Johns met an actual Jew. Relatedly, this book is extremely sympathetic to refugees and persecuted people in general.
Other than that, my favorite bit was von Stalhein in a fake beard, giving Biggles a tip like a cat presents its favorite person with a mouse. I wish we could have gotten the scene where von Stalhein meets up with the Roths. It happens but off-page, and I'm sure it's quite touching.
[image error] [image error]
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