Biggles: The Authorized Biography

by John George Pearson

For over fifty years James Biggles Worth, D.S.O., D.F.C., M.C., has flown the skies. The mythical ace to end all flying aces, the fearless pilot of everything from Sop with Camels to the earliest jets, he emerged with glory from devilish scrapes all over the world.

Yet until now Biggles has often been seen as a storybook caricature. A dashed fine chap, certainly. But not the extraordinary man he really was. Here, for the first time, is an insight into the 'real' man who made these adventures possible. In Biggles, first published in 1978, John Pearson has unravelled the missing strands in Biggles' life; delving vigorously into subjects that were once taboo.

Why did Biggles never marry? What was the truth about his tragic first love? And what were Biggles' real regrets and frustrations as he tried to come to terms with a rapidly developing world in peacetime? The truth - so long hidden behind a stiff upper lip and an equally stiff pink gin in the Officers' Mess - is at last revealed.

398 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

John Pearson was a writer best associated with James Bond creator Ian Fleming. He was Fleming's assistant at the London Sunday Times and would go on to write the first biography of Ian Fleming, 1966's The Life of Ian Fleming. Pearson also wrote "true-crime" biographies, such as The Profession of Violence: an East End gang story about the rise and fall of the Kray twins.

Pearson would also become the third official James Bond author of the adult-Bond series, writing in 1973 James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007, a first-person biography of the fictional agent James Bond. Although the canonical nature of this book has been debated by Bond fans since it was published, it was officially authorized by Glidrose Publications, the official publisher of the James Bond chronicles. Glidrose reportedly considered commissioning Pearson to write a new series of Bond novels in the 1970s, but nothing came of this.

Pearson was commissioned by Donald Campbell to chronicle his successful attempt on the Land Speed Record in 1964 in Bluebird CN7, resulting in the book Bluebird and the Dead Lake.

Pearson wrote the non-fiction book, The Gamblers, an account about the group of gamblers who made up, what was known as the Clermont Set, which included John Aspinall, James Goldsmith and Lord Lucan. The film rights to the book were purchased by Warner Bros. in 2006. He also wrote Façades, the first full-scale biography of the literary Sitwell siblings, Edith, Osbert and Sacheverell, published in 1978.

Pearson also wrote five novels:

Gone To Timbuctoo (1962) - winner of the Author's Club First Novel Award

James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 (1973)

The Bellamy Saga (1976)

Biggles: The Authorized Biography (1978)

The Kindness of Dr. Avicenna (1982).

Pearson passed away on November 13, 2021. He was ninety one at the time of his death.

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This writer, obviously a fan of the books, has taken them in order and compiled a 'biography' of the flying ace. By treating Bigglesworth as a real person we do lose out on the influences on Capt. W.E. Johns.

The earlier books, of Sopwith Camels that could land in a farmer's field so the pilot could borrow a cup of petrol to get home, were the best to my mind, written from intense personal experience and compiled from short stories written for boys' comics. After that, Johns wrote what his editors told him would sell. For instance, Biggles fell for a young lady during WWI but she turned out to be spying for Germany. The editors told him that the boy readers wanted no mushy stuff, just derring-do. So poor old Biggles was never allowed to have a relationship again, except very manly ones with his pals Algy, Bertie (an ass) and Ginger, a boy they acquired when they'd all gotten too mature to interest kids. They became one-dimensional characters, occasionally quite racist because everyone was at that time.

Biggles got to have an arch-enemy, a German flying ace, because recurring characters are easier to write and for kids to read. This took him through the Second World War as well. But finally this man came to realise that the Nazis had been wrong and not the Germany he had been born to, and he and Biggles, and the Allies, made peace.
A couple of the better novels are when Johns explored other genres. He gave us a pirate story about a cursed gold doubloon in the Caribbean, and a science-fiction story about a mountain of magnetic substance in Tibet. (Biggles Hits The Trail.)
Johns also wrote about a man called Gimlet which are good tales but these are not explored in this book.

The author, Pearson, had previously written a book about Timbuctoo. Therefore he gets to write and insert his own short story about Biggles and pals, and they go to Timbuctoo for no very good reason, crash and have to rebuild a plane from parts, like The Flight Of The Phoenix. That's about halfway through the book.

What more can I say? If you're interested have a read; if you would rather stick with the novels, do that. It's not a bad treatment of the character, but I would rather read a biography of WE Johns.

[Vikas Datta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brings the old flying ace and his crew back to life, quite credibly filling the things left out in "Billy" Johns accounts. The childhood bit doesn't quite gel, or for that matter, the eventual estrangement with Raymond but otherwise is spot on - right down to the bittersweet but apt ending. Wilkinson or Wilks is mentioned twice but doesnt play an onstage part, and same for Mahoney and one suprise omission was MacLaren and the Professor from the days of the 266th Sqn... But was quite nostalgic anyway