Biggles of the Interpol

Biggles #58

by W.E. Johns

Biggles a jeho spolupracovníci Algy, Bertie a Ginger vyšetřují zločiny, které byly spáchány za pomoci letadel. Protože tito lumpové mají s letadly obrovské možnosti pohybu, pátrání po nich nebude žádná slast a naši hrdinové se při pátrání po nich zcela určitě hodně zapotí.

Genres: Adventure, Fiction, Historical Fiction, British Literature

178 pages, Paperback

First published May 23, 1957

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

[Gareth Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of eleven short stories featuring Biggles as an air policeman cooperating on international investigations with Interpol. Many of the stories read like short sketches for movels that were rejected as too flimsy. Nevertheless, there is enjoyment in the globetrotting nature of this collection, albeit attitudes of the recent post-war era jar at times.
Not the Biggles book I would recommend to someone fresh to the oeuvre but a pleasant addition for the completist.

[Brian Gormley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 out of 5. A 1960s collection of stories from Biggles, where he sorts out dope-fiends, smugglers, foreigners and the colonies. For example, his friend becomes a heroin-addict so he takes control of the situation and books the guy onto a six-week voyage to Australia. A real insight into the arrogant colonial-era mindset.

[John Somers · Rating 2 out of 5]

09/20.

[Lennart Leverström]

"Biggles på smugglarjakt"

[Sonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.”