Having recently got into the Biggles books, I keep thinking about them. So (I hope) some of these thoughts will gel into wee mini-essays here on Dreamwidth, if only so I can go on to do more thinking, hopefully about other things. Even if it's other Biggles-related things!

So here's a bit of an introduction.

With the exception of the first few stories, which were written for a general audience, Capt. W.E. Johns’ Biggles books are adventure stories marketed to boys around ten or twelve years old. His hero, James C. Bigglesworth (nicknamed “Biggles”), and his friends are pilots who travel the world foiling spies, smugglers, thieves or what have you, and locating stolen goods, lost treasure, kidnapped scientists, and top-secret documents. With over a hundred volumes, many of which are collections of short stories, the series would—at least on the face of it—seem to be about as likely to fix my interest as the Tom Swift books that fascinated me when I was ten or twelve. Which is to say enormously at that age and not at all today.

So what is the attraction of Biggles? After all, if you read enough of the books, you quickly see that Johns reuses the same handful of tropes multiple times. True, the stories tend to be well-plotted and exciting; but one would think that my interest would be quickly exhausted just as, long ago, I tired of Tom Swift. The fact is, though, that I am constitutionally inclined to organize and analyze data—whatever data!—and have been finding in the Biggles series rather more of interest than mere adventure. (Though, mind you, they are a lot of fun.) ( Fans tend to divide the series into four eras: WW1, interwar, WW2, and post-war. )

When I first decided to try reading the Biggles series, I started with a few I had picked up in the '90s, mostly ones set in the WW2 period. Then I jumped around a bit, reading the stories that got mentioned the most by other fans, since secondhand books do cost money. However, once I realized that I could get them on line, I started them in chronological order, one by one. That has its own interest, actually: you see how the series evolved.

So I keep seeing comparisons between books, relevance to contemporary history, re-use of favourite motifs, and such. I’m hoping that, now and then, I’ll get the time/energy to put some of that down in bits of meta. Or lit. crit., depending on how you want to look at it.

Make a rec list of fanworks!

For Challenge No. 9, I talked about Capt. W.E. Johns' Biggles series, which I've recently got into. As my interest was piqued by fanfic, it seems reasonable to rec some of that here. The only problem is which, since I've pretty well vacuumed up everything available on line!

One of the books that has particularly been prompting fans to write fic is Biggles Buries a Hatchet. As it was published in 1958, it's one of the later books (though the author kept writing the series right up to his death a decade later). It's also a major turning point, at least with respect to one character in particular: Erich von Stalhein. He was originally introduced in one of the World War I stories, Biggles Flies East, as a German spy operating in Palestine—a sort of Lawrence of Arabia figure, but on the other side. During the 1930s, he becomes a recurrent antagonist in the years leading up to World War II; and, in the post-war books, he works for the Soviets. Biggles clearly respects him, considers him an "honourable enemy" type of figure, and keeps trying to persuade him to defect. In Biggles Buries a Hatchet, von Stalhein's nephew turns up in London to warn Biggles that his uncle has been sent to Siberia for refusing to assassinate him. Naturally, Biggles and his team go and rescue him. At which point, von Stalhein does indeed finally change sides.

Typically of Johns' books, there is a long lead-in to the main action, but the story is tied up very quickly at the end. Inevitably, the result has been fanfic. Here are a few, which I've put in more or less chronological order in terms of their relation to the action of the story.

"First Light" by philomytha is set in East Germany and sets up the events of the book: von Stalhein's arrest and the decision to send Fritz to Biggles.

After the rescue, they spend a secret night moored in their sea plane before taking off. In philomytha's "Ordinary Kindness", the man on watch, Biggles' closest friend Algy, wakes von Stalhein from a nightmare.

Their first stop is at an American air force base in Japan. There are several worthy stories filling in details of their brief stay there, but particularly notable is sholio's "A Touch of Kindness", in which Biggles brings food and medication to von Stalhein, who is under guard.

After that, they journey in stages back to England. In philomytha's "a piece of the continent", a stop-off in Singapore clarifies that von Stalhein is far from recovered from his ordeal in Siberia.

As for subsequent events in London, here are two rather different possibilities. In Akseel's "An Invitation to Dinner", von Stalhein is wary when Biggles' boss, Air Commodore Raymond, appears to accede to the pilot's wish that he not be constrained after his defection. In sholio's "Lightning in a Jar", on the other hand, he is subjected to mandatory electronic monitoring (indeed, forced to wear a shock collar), to Biggles' fury.

Rec Us Your Newest Thing.

This past year, I got interested in a new fandom—well, new to me, that is. I'd certainly heard of the Biggles series, which is a long set of adventure stories by British author, Capt. W.E. Johns, starring James Bigglesworth (nicknamed "Biggles") from his teen years as a fighter pilot in World War I through to middle age in the 1960s. Altogether over a hundred books, very popular in its day. Biggles is a typical mid-twentieth century boys' adventure hero: honourable, brave, ingenious, and lucky. I never read any of the books when I was a kid; but, when I was studying children's fiction back in the '90s, I bought a few for my collection. Judging by the spines, I'm not sure I even opened them!

A year or so ago, a group of Biggles fans on AO3 began requesting the series in gift exchanges, writing for each other in a venue that made the fandom visible to people quite unfamiliar with the series. They're very good writers, and one of their main pairings is the sort of frenemyship that's pure catnip. So last summer I hauled out the handful of books I had and took a peek at them.

They're well plotted and lots of fun!

So I ordered more; but, as they're cheaper in Britain, I had them delivered to my sister, who brought them over to me when she came here for Christmas. In the meantime, I discovered that most of the books are actually available on line. In some countries, you see, they're out of copyright; and, as that includes Canada, I've been downloading them with a clear conscience. Of course, with so many of them, I'm nowhere near finishing the series yet.

People who read my stories know that I often write "worldbuilding" stories: not just backstory and futurefic; but also stories that fill in missing bits, or try to resolve contradictions and errors, or assemble all the tiny snippets of information we have about a supporting character and then try to fit them into a coherent whole. Any worldbuilder who sees a lacuna in canon is bound to wonder what happened. Well, the Biggles series is full of odd gaps and questions. So fanfic, obviously ... and then probably more fanfic! And maybe some meta, too.