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Biggles #86
Biggles in the Terai
Algy, working with the Indian Security Police to assist them in a gold smuggling racket, has disappeared. Flying to Northern India, Biggles, taking Bertie with him, lands at Shara, just below Nepal, where a 12 mile strip of Jungle all along the Southern border of Nepal called the Terai, forms a perfect boundary with India. Assisted by an Indian mechanic called Ram Singh, Biggles and Bertie commence looking for Algy. They know he had borrowed an Indian Air Force Hunter aircraft from Calcutta and was flying in that when he disappeared. Approached by a sinister stranger with a wooden leg, called Holman Larta, Biggles is suspicious of his offers of help. Later an attempt is made to murder both Biggles and Bertie while they are asleep in their beds. Ram Singh is asked to sleep in Biggles and Bertie's plane, in order to protect it from sabotage during the night. This is a wise precaution because a man named Bula Din attempts to place a deadly snake in their plane but is stopped when Ram raises the alarm. Constant methodical aerial searching of the Terai jungle has revealed a hidden airstrip. Biggles lands and Bertie flies the plane away, leaving Biggles to investigate. The next day a mysterious plane tries to land only to be shot at by a hidden gunman. The plane flies away and the gunman disappears. Bertie returns and his plane is hidden. The mystery plane later returns only to be scared off by gunfire from the mysterious gunman again. This time Biggles sneaks up on the gunman and finds he is Subahdar Mahomad Khan. Khan asks if he is addressing Captain Bigglesworth and says that he is with Mr. Algy Lacey! Algy has crashed in the jungle a month ago and suffered a double fracture to the leg but Khan has found him and been looking after him. Meeting up with Algy, he tells Biggles and Bertie that the airstrip is being used by the gold smugglers as a dropping off point. Holman Larta is behind it and hides the gold in his wooden leg to get through customs. Unable to take Algy with him at this stage, Biggles and Bertie return to Shara and then have to return to fetch Algy before the monsoon breaks. Larta, Din and the other gold smugglers are all arrested. The dust cover shows two aircraft over the outline of a vulture sitting in a tree.
190 pages
First published February 1, 1966
53 people want to read
About the author
W.E. Johns
609 books115 followersInvariably 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 4, 2022
A fun mystery abroad in India for Biggles. A bit of suspense, a bit of mystery, a bit of near-death experience, a bit of unintentional racism common for the time.
I’d describe Biggles as Sherlock Holmes in a plane with some minor James Bond moments.
I’d describe Biggles as Sherlock Holmes in a plane with some minor James Bond moments.
August 26, 2019
Good lord. Not another naked, oiled dhobi-wallah. Surely this can't be the one we encountered in Biggles in the Orient. That was fifty-seven books ago.
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June 26, 2023at last biggles returns to form (being enjoyable to read). i have been in a bigglesian desert of boring AND racist books for so long (read 'biggles flies north')
December 22, 2025
I am reviewing the series as a whole, rather than the books individually
The Biggles series is great adventure fiction: we get high stakes, aerial action (in most of the books), and a hero who is endlessly loyal, competent, and calm under pressure.
I love the dogfights, recon missions, and wartime scenarios.
Where the series falls short is character depth. Some attitudes and simplifications reflect the period in which the books were written. There are very definitely dated elements, but considering the era the books were written - overall the series performs well. More than a few of the stories defy plausibility, but who doesn't love to curl up with a good adventure book or 10?
“Never say die.”
The Biggles series is great adventure fiction: we get high stakes, aerial action (in most of the books), and a hero who is endlessly loyal, competent, and calm under pressure.
I love the dogfights, recon missions, and wartime scenarios.
Where the series falls short is character depth. Some attitudes and simplifications reflect the period in which the books were written. There are very definitely dated elements, but considering the era the books were written - overall the series performs well. More than a few of the stories defy plausibility, but who doesn't love to curl up with a good adventure book or 10?
“Never say die.”
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews