Biggles Goes Alone

Biggles #71

by W.E. Johns

As the title suggests this adventure does not feature Algy, Ginger or Bertie. Air Commodore Raymond insists that Biggles takes a holiday and books him into a hotel he knows in Polstow, on the South Cornish coast. After a while relaxing, the village is shaken by the death of a young woman called Vera Harrington. She is found dead in her home in mysterious circumstances and the local community is shocked by her murder. Biggles can't help being drawn into making discreet enquires about the matter as he is intrigued. He doesn't want to interfere but the local Police Chief Superintendent is happy to discuss the case with him, as he knows he is a detective from Scotland Yard.

156 pages, Hardcover

Published January 11, 1962

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

[Sem · Rating 3 out of 5]

In spite of Raymond's exhortation to cut back on cigarettes Biggles seemed to smoke more in this book than in most of the others. At one point he's described as sitting with a pile of butts around his feet. Not a pretty picture. The reality is that in the absence of Ginger, Algy, and Bertie he smokes non-stop and is unpleasant to everyone. Obviously, forced inaction is too much for his fragile temperament. Either that or, towards the end of his writing career, Johns had little to say and no great interest in saying it. So although I should give this 2 stars, I'll give it three for being a novelty. I went on to attempt 'Biggles - Charter Pilot' but had to bail out.

[Rosie]

had to use this completely unused goodreads page because for god knows what reason the current listing for biggles goes alone redirects automatically to goes to war, which while good is a completely separate book.

anyway this was good. i like mysteries! i like the seaside (sometimes)! i like biggles being clever and a little bit sneaky! i REALLY like books which take less than two hours to read!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice