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Biggles #49
Biggles and the Pirate Treasure
This contains eleven short stories. These are as
BIGGLES AND THE PIRATE TREASURE
The descendant of a pirate has discovered a treasure map, but greed ends in tragedy. (Dust cover).
THE CASE OF THE OBLIGING TOURIST
A change encounter helps Biggles smash a jewellery smuggling racket.
NIGHT FLIGHT
Planes are disappearing over the Middle East. Biggles and Co. set up a trap to catch the culprits.
THE CASE OF THE IVORY IDOL
Biggles is tricked into recovering a religious artefact that is much more than it seems.
BIGGLES BUYS A WATCH
A clever watch smuggling racket is uncovered when Biggles chances upon the method of disposal.
THE CASE OF THE POISONED CROPS
Crops are dying in East Africa and this is causing native unrest. Biggles has to find the culprits.
BIGGLES NETS A FISH
Scientific plans from an Atomic Sub Station are leaked and Biggles has to find the guilty party.
THE CASE OF THE LUNATIC AT LARGE
A war hero goes mad after his twin brother is arrested and threatens to use a stolen bomber.
THE CASE OF THE FLYING CLOWN
A disfigured armaments king is seeking revenge on the world that he thinks has wronged him.
THE CASE OF THE PHONE BOX MURDER
A murder in a phone box leads to the discovery of a criminal transportation network.
THE UNKNOWN DIAMONDS
Dr. Shultz, who deals in Monkeys, has discovered a novel way of using them to smuggle diamonds.
BIGGLES AND THE PIRATE TREASURE
The descendant of a pirate has discovered a treasure map, but greed ends in tragedy. (Dust cover).
THE CASE OF THE OBLIGING TOURIST
A change encounter helps Biggles smash a jewellery smuggling racket.
NIGHT FLIGHT
Planes are disappearing over the Middle East. Biggles and Co. set up a trap to catch the culprits.
THE CASE OF THE IVORY IDOL
Biggles is tricked into recovering a religious artefact that is much more than it seems.
BIGGLES BUYS A WATCH
A clever watch smuggling racket is uncovered when Biggles chances upon the method of disposal.
THE CASE OF THE POISONED CROPS
Crops are dying in East Africa and this is causing native unrest. Biggles has to find the culprits.
BIGGLES NETS A FISH
Scientific plans from an Atomic Sub Station are leaked and Biggles has to find the guilty party.
THE CASE OF THE LUNATIC AT LARGE
A war hero goes mad after his twin brother is arrested and threatens to use a stolen bomber.
THE CASE OF THE FLYING CLOWN
A disfigured armaments king is seeking revenge on the world that he thinks has wronged him.
THE CASE OF THE PHONE BOX MURDER
A murder in a phone box leads to the discovery of a criminal transportation network.
THE UNKNOWN DIAMONDS
Dr. Shultz, who deals in Monkeys, has discovered a novel way of using them to smuggle diamonds.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published July 19, 1954
75 people want to read
About the author
W.E. Johns
610 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 26, 2015
Johns' heart wasn't in this one.
ETA: It was almost worth it for the deformed flying clown.
ETA: It was almost worth it for the deformed flying clown.
July 12, 2019
Biggles & Co. short stories. Most enjoyable in this collection were Biggles and the Pirate Treasure; The Case of the Ivory Idol; and The Unknown Diamonds, all set in exotic and far away places.
March 26, 2018
Another Collection of Cool Biggles Stories
9 March 2014
This is another collection of short stories staring the ace World War I pilot in his post World War II role as the head of the Scotland Yard Air Police. Yes, that person is Bigglesworth, otherwise known to his friends, and many adoring readers throughout the western world, as Biggles. However, unlike the other collection of short stories from his Scotland Yard days, these stories seem to be a lot broader in scope and do not seem to be replications of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories where you have a section that introduces the situation, a small piece of action, and then the rest of the story were the protagonist explains how he came to his conclusion.
In this collection of stories, we have Biggles going after some pirate treasure.
He busts open a watch smuggling racket.
As well as going after a diamond smuggling racket:
which happens to be smuggled into England in the stomach of monkeys.
Though the above monkey is actually an Amazon monkey and the monkeys that were in the book were from Africa.
There are a few things that I wish to say about this book that came out for me as I was reading it: the first being the diamond trade, and the second being about the watch smuggling.
It seems that the diamond trade back then was quite restricted, and it is interesting to see how it was viewed back in the 50s. These days (as I suspect was the case back then) diamonds are actually controlled by what I will call a legal cartel. Basically the diamonds that are mined are owned by a small group of people who pretty much lock them away and release them bit by bit to keep the price of the diamonds unnaturally high. I once went around work asking people whether they would still go and buy diamonds if they were worth something like $20.00 a carat, to which the common response was 'no'. Therefore, it is quite understandable that there would be an investigation into a diamond smuggling racket because by smuggling them into the country means that the capitalists who control the diamond trade are quite likely to lose out. Further, Johns seems to think that diamonds were only mined in South Africa however, ignoring the diamond fields here in Australia, there are many other countries in Africa where diamonds are mined, and since the regulations are non-existent one is almost led to believe that the diamond industry is run by a bunch of criminals. For more information on the diamond industry I would recommend the movie Blood Diamond (despite the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is the leading actor).
The other thing is the thing about the tariffs, which was why Biggles was going after the watch smugglers. Personally this made absolutely no sense to me because most tariffs have been pulled down now so that there is no duty on imports (well, actually there is, which is why they still have duty free shops, but with the advent of the internet you can easily import things without having to pay a duty, unless of course the imports happen to be alcohol or tobacco). That is not entirely true because there are still countries (such as the United States) that have import duties, or provide subsidies to certain industries (such as farming) but in general, most goods these days can be brought into a country without any need to pay any extra costs (and in some cases they are GST free).
9 March 2014
This is another collection of short stories staring the ace World War I pilot in his post World War II role as the head of the Scotland Yard Air Police. Yes, that person is Bigglesworth, otherwise known to his friends, and many adoring readers throughout the western world, as Biggles. However, unlike the other collection of short stories from his Scotland Yard days, these stories seem to be a lot broader in scope and do not seem to be replications of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes short stories where you have a section that introduces the situation, a small piece of action, and then the rest of the story were the protagonist explains how he came to his conclusion.
In this collection of stories, we have Biggles going after some pirate treasure.
He busts open a watch smuggling racket.
As well as going after a diamond smuggling racket:
which happens to be smuggled into England in the stomach of monkeys.
Though the above monkey is actually an Amazon monkey and the monkeys that were in the book were from Africa.
There are a few things that I wish to say about this book that came out for me as I was reading it: the first being the diamond trade, and the second being about the watch smuggling.
It seems that the diamond trade back then was quite restricted, and it is interesting to see how it was viewed back in the 50s. These days (as I suspect was the case back then) diamonds are actually controlled by what I will call a legal cartel. Basically the diamonds that are mined are owned by a small group of people who pretty much lock them away and release them bit by bit to keep the price of the diamonds unnaturally high. I once went around work asking people whether they would still go and buy diamonds if they were worth something like $20.00 a carat, to which the common response was 'no'. Therefore, it is quite understandable that there would be an investigation into a diamond smuggling racket because by smuggling them into the country means that the capitalists who control the diamond trade are quite likely to lose out. Further, Johns seems to think that diamonds were only mined in South Africa however, ignoring the diamond fields here in Australia, there are many other countries in Africa where diamonds are mined, and since the regulations are non-existent one is almost led to believe that the diamond industry is run by a bunch of criminals. For more information on the diamond industry I would recommend the movie Blood Diamond (despite the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is the leading actor).
The other thing is the thing about the tariffs, which was why Biggles was going after the watch smugglers. Personally this made absolutely no sense to me because most tariffs have been pulled down now so that there is no duty on imports (well, actually there is, which is why they still have duty free shops, but with the advent of the internet you can easily import things without having to pay a duty, unless of course the imports happen to be alcohol or tobacco). That is not entirely true because there are still countries (such as the United States) that have import duties, or provide subsidies to certain industries (such as farming) but in general, most goods these days can be brought into a country without any need to pay any extra costs (and in some cases they are GST free).
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.”
June 28, 2016
Dit is een verzameling korte na-oorlogse verhalen van Biggles en vrienden.
In deze verhalen krijgt Biggles te maken met een mismaakte clown, een diamanten-smokkelaar die apen gebruikt om de diamanten in te vervoeren, een smokkel van staatsgeheimen en nog veel meer.
In deze verhalen krijgt Biggles te maken met een mismaakte clown, een diamanten-smokkelaar die apen gebruikt om de diamanten in te vervoeren, een smokkel van staatsgeheimen en nog veel meer.
Read
August 23, 2008isbn,original
March 6, 2012
Re-read 12/12 -99
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews