Biggles Forms a Syndicate

Biggles #69

by W.E. Johns

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Genres: Adventure

160 pages, Hardcover

First published July 6, 1961

About the author

Invariably known as Captain W.E. Johns, William Earl Johns was born in Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Richard Eastman Johns, a tailor, and Elizabeth Johns (née Earl), the daughter of a master butcher. He had a younger brother, Russell Ernest Johns, who was born on 24 October 1895.

He went to Hertford Grammar School where he was no great scholar but he did develop into a crack shot with a rifle. This fired his early ambition to be a soldier. He also attended evening classes at the local art school.

In the summer of 1907 he was apprenticed to a county municipal surveyor where he remained for four years and then in 1912 he became a sanitary inspector in Swaffham, Norfolk. Soon after taking up this appointment, his father died of tuberculosis at the age of 47.

On 6 October 1914 he married Maude Penelope Hunt (1882–1961), the daughter of the Reverend John Hunt, the vicar at Little Dunham in Norfolk. The couple had one son, William Earl Carmichael Johns, who was born in March 1916.

With war looming he joined the Territorial Army as a Private in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Norfolk Yeomanry), a cavalry regiment. In August 1914 his regiment was mobilised and was in training and on home defence duties until September 1915 when they received embarkation orders for duty overseas.

He fought at Gallipoli and in the Suez Canal area and, after moving to the Machine gun Corps, he took part in the spring offensive in Salonika in April 1917. He contracted malaria and whilst in hospital he put in for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and on 26 September 1917, he was given a temporary commission as a Second Lieutenant and posted back to England to learn to fly, which he did at No. 1 School of Aeronautics at Reading, where he was taught by a Captain Ashton.

He was posted to No. 25 Flying Training School at Thetford where he had a charmed existence, once writing off three planes in three days. He moved to Yorkshire and was then posted to France and while on a bombing raid to Mannheim his plane was shot down and he was wounded. Captured by the Germans, he later escaped before being reincarcerated where he remained until the war ended.

Reviews

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 3 out of 5]

In dit verhaal spelen vliegtuigen een ondergeschikte rol. De omstandigheden in de woestijn in Noord-Afrika des te meer. Op een ietwat merkwaardige, gekunstelde manier raakt het team van Biggles betrokken bij een schatzoekerij temidden van Arabische bedoeïenen. Jammer dat de historische waarde van de gevonden "schat" zo onderbelicht blijft. Al is dat wel zo verstandig van de auteur in geval de lezer ter verificatie op museumbezoek denkt te gaan.
Biggles speelt een minder prominente rol in een groot deel van het boek wat ons de kans geeft om enkele anderen beter te leren kennen. Goied verhaal, al is de politieke achtergrond compleeet veranderd. Best om het niet als achterhaald te beschouwen maar gewoon als een spannend avontuur.

[Paul Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biggles searches for the lost city of Ophir and the legendary treasure of the Queen of Sheba. Will Biggles, Ginger, Algy and Bertie find it first, or will a gang of equally determined criminals beat them to it? Does the treasure exist at all? Added to the story are the local Arab Bedouin who don't take kindly to the sudden appearance of all these unwelcome treasure seekers. Great escapism adventure, which quickly took me back to my boyhood years.

[Rtrv2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very by-the-numbers 1960s Biggles book. It reads more like one of the Biggles short stories than a full novel. The plot feels somewhat underbaked and the main villain doesn't get to do much. It's also rather lacking in peril. It was pleasant enough, but not a highlight of the Biggles series.

[Sem · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not much of a story but at least Ginger gets to have a T. E. Lawrence moment.