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Biggles #35
Biggles Takes a Holiday
There’s trouble in paradise for Biggles…Biggles is summoned suddenly to the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases, where he hears the deathbed revelations of a man named Linton, who has a message from a mutual friend, Angus Mackail. Linton and Angus, alongside many others, were duped into investing in farmland reclaimed from the jungle in central South America, an area known as Paradise Valley.
But this is no second Eden. The ‘investors’ swiftly found themselves as little more than slaves working the land for the owner of the valley, the enigmatic and silver-tongued Dr Leibgarten. Imprisoned by the lethal jungle and desert surrounding the valley, it took a superhuman effort for Linton to escape, and costs him his life to deliver the warning.
Determined to rescue Angus and the other captives, Biggles wastes no time in getting Algy, Ginger and Bertie on the case, and takes to the skies. But they swiftly find out there is far more going on in Paradise Valley than Linton could ever have suspected…
But this is no second Eden. The ‘investors’ swiftly found themselves as little more than slaves working the land for the owner of the valley, the enigmatic and silver-tongued Dr Leibgarten. Imprisoned by the lethal jungle and desert surrounding the valley, it took a superhuman effort for Linton to escape, and costs him his life to deliver the warning.
Determined to rescue Angus and the other captives, Biggles wastes no time in getting Algy, Ginger and Bertie on the case, and takes to the skies. But they swiftly find out there is far more going on in Paradise Valley than Linton could ever have suspected…
218 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1949
7 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
W.E. Johns
609 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 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 1, 2025
Very deceptive title - there was me expecting to follow Biggles and his friends on a walking holiday in the Lake District, staying a B&B's, dropping into little cafes for lunch, maybe having a run in with a spot of bad weather (at most some mid-level dognappers) if you insist on including some conflict. Maybe I'll have to write that book sometime.
What I found instead was a surpassingly brilliant and tensely-written story where Biggles finds ex-Nazis experimenting on captives in the Argentinian desert. A brilliant return of von Stalhein, great dramatic moments, strong side characters and villains, a poisonous spider bite... it was brilliant all round. 5 stars.
What I found instead was a surpassingly brilliant and tensely-written story where Biggles finds ex-Nazis experimenting on captives in the Argentinian desert. A brilliant return of von Stalhein, great dramatic moments, strong side characters and villains, a poisonous spider bite... it was brilliant all round. 5 stars.
December 15, 2020
Not a fan of this book where someone tells Biggles an old friend of Biggles' is stuck in a work camp in the Amazon jungle controlled by some shady people. He gets an airplane and goes to save them.
As so often in the post 30s books, there is very little flying, and more being chased by native people through the wilderness with Ginger doing the running and Biggles the thinking. And we get to meet von Stalhein. So many of the common pieces of an Biggles adventure book, but not put together in a good way, especially when the author divides people into British (reliable) and non-British (unreliable) and natives (stupid).
This book was published 1947 so it's just after 6 years of patriotic war propaganda which probably made an impact on W. E. Johns and the British in general, but I see no reason to excuse his flaws and the book's flaws.
As so often in the post 30s books, there is very little flying, and more being chased by native people through the wilderness with Ginger doing the running and Biggles the thinking. And we get to meet von Stalhein. So many of the common pieces of an Biggles adventure book, but not put together in a good way, especially when the author divides people into British (reliable) and non-British (unreliable) and natives (stupid).
This book was published 1947 so it's just after 6 years of patriotic war propaganda which probably made an impact on W. E. Johns and the British in general, but I see no reason to excuse his flaws and the book's flaws.
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May 11, 2023my worst biggles yet by some margin.
1. plot is complete nonsense and involves unbelievable amounts of to-ing and fro-ing across miles of rainforest which w.e. johns has an insane grudge against for some reason
2. the racism! don't think this needs elaboration but oh my fucking god
3. von stalhein seems to be in it basically for no reason besides lounging around smoking and adding more tangles to whatever w.e. johns decided he was doing during ww2 after he realised nazis are in fact evil and he didn't want von stalhein that far gone. you cannot have your cake and eat it too mr johns.
3.5. like he is so laughably incompetent in this book it genuinely feels like he is deliberately sabotaging stitzens operation
4. the RACISM!!
1. plot is complete nonsense and involves unbelievable amounts of to-ing and fro-ing across miles of rainforest which w.e. johns has an insane grudge against for some reason
2. the racism! don't think this needs elaboration but oh my fucking god
3. von stalhein seems to be in it basically for no reason besides lounging around smoking and adding more tangles to whatever w.e. johns decided he was doing during ww2 after he realised nazis are in fact evil and he didn't want von stalhein that far gone. you cannot have your cake and eat it too mr johns.
3.5. like he is so laughably incompetent in this book it genuinely feels like he is deliberately sabotaging stitzens operation
4. the RACISM!!
June 13, 2019
Good fun and plenty of excitement! South American crocodiles, tropical diseases, tarantulas, panthers, natives with poisonous arrows and to cap it all some rather unscrupulous scoundrels waiting to shoot you down. What more could you want! It's paradise!
May 14, 2018
B's recovery after the spider bite, is extreme unrealistic
November 11, 2020
puur kindernostalgie maar altijd leuk om eens te herlezen
July 18, 2021
All right Biggles tale. Without the general escapades of his best.
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.”
October 29, 2023
While not his best effort, I found I got more caught up in the storyline than I had expected I would. The premise of Biggles using his holiday time and money to personally fund a very expensive expedition to the other side of the world on a hearsay story of ill-treatment of some ex-pats who voluntarily entered an agreement and were technically (and ostensibly) free to leave at any time was a bit hard to swallow. Biggles was always pretty iron-willed and focused on his missions, refusing to be drawn into side issues.
Yes, there is the usual racism and "Good British guys vs Bad Foreigners" Jingoism in most pre and Wartime books (like most British authors of the time), but I feel Johns was a messenger giving us a fairly honest indication of how "Britishers" ( a term you don't see often today) felt after a devastating war. Uncomfortable home truths, if you like. Johns recycled a lot of themes and settings in the huge amounts of books he wrote, but he usually came up with enough clever twists and turns to keep the reader interested.
Personally, I think he recycled Eric von Stalhein too many times, and also the oft-repeated story locations of jungles and deserts... but I think these provided an exoticism for readers at the time who needed an escape from their dreary lives. Of course we always know how these books are going to end, but I found this one pretty interesting to follow.
I was very lucky to get a hold of a 1952 hardcover edition in good condition with beautiful colour plates, which probably added to my pleasure of the book.
Yes, there is the usual racism and "Good British guys vs Bad Foreigners" Jingoism in most pre and Wartime books (like most British authors of the time), but I feel Johns was a messenger giving us a fairly honest indication of how "Britishers" ( a term you don't see often today) felt after a devastating war. Uncomfortable home truths, if you like. Johns recycled a lot of themes and settings in the huge amounts of books he wrote, but he usually came up with enough clever twists and turns to keep the reader interested.
Personally, I think he recycled Eric von Stalhein too many times, and also the oft-repeated story locations of jungles and deserts... but I think these provided an exoticism for readers at the time who needed an escape from their dreary lives. Of course we always know how these books are going to end, but I found this one pretty interesting to follow.
I was very lucky to get a hold of a 1952 hardcover edition in good condition with beautiful colour plates, which probably added to my pleasure of the book.
June 28, 2016
In dit boek word Biggles naar het ziekenhuis voor tropische ziekten geroepen waar hij een gesprek heeft met een stervende man. Deze man verteld hem over een vallei ergens in midden- of zuid-Amerika, waar mensen onder valse voorwendselen naar toe gelokt worden. Een van deze mensen is een squadron-vriend van Biggles.
Natuurlijk vertrekken Biggles en zijn team om hun vriend te redden, en in de tussentijd redden ze de wereld ook van een ramp, als blijkt dat oud-Nazi's, een gevluchte kolonel van het Mexicaanse leger en een gestoorde dokter samen spannen om hun eigen doel te behalen.
Leuk verhaal, snel te lezen, met de typische stereo-typeringen van de tijd.
O en voor ik het vergeet, Von Stalhein speelt weer eens mee.
Natuurlijk vertrekken Biggles en zijn team om hun vriend te redden, en in de tussentijd redden ze de wereld ook van een ramp, als blijkt dat oud-Nazi's, een gevluchte kolonel van het Mexicaanse leger en een gestoorde dokter samen spannen om hun eigen doel te behalen.
Leuk verhaal, snel te lezen, met de typische stereo-typeringen van de tijd.
O en voor ik het vergeet, Von Stalhein speelt weer eens mee.
October 6, 2015
these were great books when I was a kid, but now I'm grown-up they are just silly and improbable.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews