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osprey_archerFrom her trip in England, littlerhymes sent me a Biggles omnibus containing Biggles Flies East and Biggles Flies West, which the publishers must have bunged together based on the pleasing symmetry of their names, because they are wildly different books!
Biggles Flies East is a World War I spy adventure. After a German recruiter mistakes Biggles for a disgraced pilot and tries to recruit him as a spy, the British intelligence service decides to run Biggles as a double agent - which ends with Biggles stationed at a German airbase in Palestine, where the slightest slip might lead to his death, surrounded by enemies on all sides!
Biggles spends many of his adventures in situations where the slightest slip might lead to his death, and generally seems pretty chill with it, but being surrounded by enemies takes a real toll. The atmosphere of distrust frays his nerves: he’s clearly much more comfortable on adventures when he has his friends at his back.
This is also the book that first introduces Biggles’ sexy nemesis von Stalhein! I actually found this less slashy than Biggles and Co, perhaps because von Stalhein and Biggles are supposedly on the same side and therefore can’t truly lean into the antago-flirtation? And, as aforementioned, Biggles is simply not at his best as a spy. As Algy comments, “Those soulless hounds at the Air Board need boiling in oil for sending a fellow like Biggles on a job like this.”
Biggles Flies West, on the other hand, is a much more classic Biggles & his buddies face danger together adventure… and also a riff on Treasure Island! (The characters in fact give themselves Treasure Island nicknames: Biggles is of course Captain Smollett.) After Biggles and friends rescue teenage Dick Denver from a ruffian intent on stealing the treasure map (and the cursed doubloon) that Dick just received in a letter from his father, they join forces to hunt for treasure on a small island in the Caribbean.
This culminates in an amazing sequence where Biggles and company defend an Elizabethan-era fort (carved, as Johns tells us, into the living rock of the island), using the weapons abandoned there centuries ago when pirates drove the garrison from the fort, while wearing Elizabethan clothing that was also left behind. “Would all this be usable after centuries of neglect?” the adult reader may be tempted to ask. Hush! Rule of cool! Enjoy the visual of Biggles and friends, dressed in Elizabethan finery, armed only with Elizabethan muskets and cannon (and a cutlass!), taking on a ship full of ruffians intent on stealing their pirate treasure!
Genuinely astonished that no one has made a Sharpe-style series of movies based on the Biggles books. They’re so cinematic. But apparently the only Biggles movie is the one with the time-traveling TV dinner salesman. Such a waste.
littlerhymes sent me a Biggles omnibus containing Biggles Flies East and Biggles Flies West, which the publishers must have bunged together based on the pleasing symmetry of their names, because they are wildly different books!Biggles Flies East is a World War I spy adventure. After a German recruiter mistakes Biggles for a disgraced pilot and tries to recruit him as a spy, the British intelligence service decides to run Biggles as a double agent - which ends with Biggles stationed at a German airbase in Palestine, where the slightest slip might lead to his death, surrounded by enemies on all sides!
Biggles spends many of his adventures in situations where the slightest slip might lead to his death, and generally seems pretty chill with it, but being surrounded by enemies takes a real toll. The atmosphere of distrust frays his nerves: he’s clearly much more comfortable on adventures when he has his friends at his back.
This is also the book that first introduces Biggles’ sexy nemesis von Stalhein! I actually found this less slashy than Biggles and Co, perhaps because von Stalhein and Biggles are supposedly on the same side and therefore can’t truly lean into the antago-flirtation? And, as aforementioned, Biggles is simply not at his best as a spy. As Algy comments, “Those soulless hounds at the Air Board need boiling in oil for sending a fellow like Biggles on a job like this.”
Biggles Flies West, on the other hand, is a much more classic Biggles & his buddies face danger together adventure… and also a riff on Treasure Island! (The characters in fact give themselves Treasure Island nicknames: Biggles is of course Captain Smollett.) After Biggles and friends rescue teenage Dick Denver from a ruffian intent on stealing the treasure map (and the cursed doubloon) that Dick just received in a letter from his father, they join forces to hunt for treasure on a small island in the Caribbean.
This culminates in an amazing sequence where Biggles and company defend an Elizabethan-era fort (carved, as Johns tells us, into the living rock of the island), using the weapons abandoned there centuries ago when pirates drove the garrison from the fort, while wearing Elizabethan clothing that was also left behind. “Would all this be usable after centuries of neglect?” the adult reader may be tempted to ask. Hush! Rule of cool! Enjoy the visual of Biggles and friends, dressed in Elizabethan finery, armed only with Elizabethan muskets and cannon (and a cutlass!), taking on a ship full of ruffians intent on stealing their pirate treasure!
Genuinely astonished that no one has made a Sharpe-style series of movies based on the Biggles books. They’re so cinematic. But apparently the only Biggles movie is the one with the time-traveling TV dinner salesman. Such a waste.
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Date: 2022-08-08 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-08 05:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-08 05:51 pm (UTC)(This is him and Algy, having been captured while in the scud. As you do.)
http://www.biggles.info/Details/13/Illustrations/Page135.jpg
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Date: 2022-08-08 06:16 pm (UTC)Or let it get in the way of drawing naked menno subject
Date: 2022-08-08 07:08 pm (UTC)http://www.biggles.info/Details/14/Illustrations/Page121.jpg
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Date: 2022-08-08 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-08 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-08 06:19 pm (UTC)Whereas Flies East is, as you say, more serious: there's a genuine strain on Biggles. He's totally chill with crash-landing naked on a deserted-but-for-the-bad-guys island, but having to lie to people all day? That's stressful!
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Date: 2022-08-09 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-09 03:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-09 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-09 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-09 11:26 pm (UTC)I'm also kind of astounded that there's never been a series of movies or a ridiculous radio serial or ANYTHING.
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Date: 2022-08-10 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-12 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-11 12:02 pm (UTC)More authors need to run with this, HONESTLY.
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Date: 2022-08-11 12:28 pm (UTC)Having said that, I think there's a certain kind of nitpicking internet criticism that has made creators gunshy about this. It's so easy to complain that the guns should no longer work after centuries of neglect! Such low-hanging fruit!