Another Job for Biggles by W. E. Johns was first serialised in seven monthly instalments as Biggles in Arabia in Collins Magazine for Boys and Girls between February 1950 and August 1950. The book was published in 1951 by Hodder & Stoughton. There have been 2 subsequent editions in the English language, all reprints by Hodder & Stoughton. The events in the book take place in the early 1950s in Arabia and the Horn of Africa on the Red Sea coast.
In Oct 1966, Aredit published a French comic strip adaptation entitled Biggles in Arabie as part of its Biggles comics series. Also in the same year, Studio Vandersteen published a different Dutch comic strip adaptation titled Biggles in Arabiƫ.
Synopsis[]
Biggles, Ginger and Bertie are sent to destroy a wild crop of a dangerous narcotic called gurra which has been found growing in the Arabian desert. They arrive to find the crop burnt but learn that someone has taken some seeds--apparently to cultivate them. They set off to find the new source of the drug.
Plot[]
Note: The sections below contain spoilers. In particular, the plot subpage (click here) has an extended summary of the narrative in the book
Characters[]
The Special Air Police[]
- Air Commodore Raymond
- Biggles
- Ginger Hebblethwaite
- Bertie Lissie
(Algy Lacey does not take part in the operation--he was said to be on holiday--but he does show up in the last chapter at the Air Police office where he listened to Biggles read out a letter by Captain Norman.)
Friends and allies[]
Others[]
Aircraft[]
Places[]
Visited[]
- Aden Airport
- Villa el Paloma in the Stretta Fontana
- Rub al Khali
- Wadi al Arwat
- El Moab - in the Danakil desert
- Aerodrome 137 - abandoned R.A.F. landing ground in the Danakil desert
Mentioned[]
- Muscat - Ambrimos had a coastal transport service which picked up dates from Muscat
- Mocha - and coffee from Mocha.
- Oxford - Ambrimos claimed he studied here
- Marsa Mekel
- Turkey, Afghanistan, Greece - Biggles believed these were where hemp was mainly grown
- Sudan
- Ethiopia
- Danakil country
Cultural references[]
- Epsom Downs on Derby Day
- Murra tribe
- Frankincense
- Royal Horticultural Society
- Kew Gardens
- Artemesia, wormwood, absinthe - in the same family as gurra
- various drugs are mentioned: opium,, cocaine, harshish, marijuana
- various kinds of tobacco leaf: Virginian, Turkish, Egyptian, Empire
- various aromatic trees and shrubs: frankincense, myrrh, balm of Gilead, opoponax
- Horlicks (tablets) - was in the emergency rations of the Proctors
- kief, charas, gunjah - Zahar describes various aspects of hashish for Biggles
- menzil
- Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau
- Ambrimos: "I will always be able to buy a road". He explains to Biggles that he means he will always be able to get his way by bribery.
- Pizarro
- Lead on, MacDuff. Chapter 13, Bertie.
Research Notes[]
- Chapter 1 contains a detailed background of the setting up of the Special Air Police. Biggles had apparently secured funds which enabled him to hire a team of ground crew led by Flight Sergeant Smyth. They had rented a small hangar at Gatwick, with offices and a radio room which would be manned around the clock. There was one or two aircraft for general work on the inventory (no details given), with a liaison officer at the Air Ministry who would arrange the loan of other aircraft from the R.A.F. as needed. Air Police aircraft were equipped with two-way high frequency radio to communicate with one another and with police cars on the ground.
- The above suggests that the Air Police has just moved to Gatwick at the start of this story. Prior to this, as indicated in Sergeant Bigglesworth C.I.D., it had a hangar at Croydon Airport.
- Algy missed this mission because he was away on a yachting holiday.
- Biggles' promotion to Detective Air-Inspector is first announced in Chapter 1. Yet in Biggles Air Detective, published in May 1950, he was already Detective Air-Inspector. This is because Another Job for Biggles was first serialised from February to August 1950, predating Air Detective, so there is no discontinuity here.
References to the past[]
Incongruities[]
Chronology[]
Editions[]
Another Job for Biggles was first serialised in seven monthly parts as Biggles in Arabia in Collins Magazine for Boys and Girls between February 1950 and August 1950. It was reprinted in the 1951 Collins Magazine Annual (vol 4).
Cover of the 1st ed. The same picture is reproduced on b/w on the frontispiece.
1. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1951. 191 pages, 4 tinted illustrations, one b/w drawing on frontispiece, 11 b/w text illustrations by Stead. Red boards, black letters on spine and cover, with a vignette of an Arab. Book list prior to title page lists 11 Biggles books and advises Biggles Goes to School is coming shortly. Also 5 Worrals books. Price on dustjacket front flap 6/.
- Dust jacket in full colour shows the scene where Biggles is confronted by the drug growing gang. The same picture in b/w is on the frontispiece.
- the first edition is not particularly rare and examples with dust jackets can be found on ebay for less than Ā£20.
2. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1951 2nd impression reprint. 191 pages, 4 tinted illustrations, one b/w drawing on frontispiece, 11 b/w text illustrations by Stead. Red boards, black letters on spine and cover, with a vignette of an Arab. Book list prior to title page now lists 13 Biggles books, the last one being Biggles Works It Out. Also 5 Worrals books. Same dustjacket picture as 1st ed. Price on dustjacket front flap now 7/6.
3. London: Hodder & Stoughton, [1957]. Another reprint. 191 pages, 4 tinted illustrations, one b/w drawing on frontispiece, 11 b/w text illustrations by Stead. Red boards, black letters on spine and cover, with a vignette of an Arab. Book list prior to title page now lists 13 Biggles books, the last one being Biggles Works It Out. Also 5 Worrals books. Same dustjacket picture as 1st ed. Price on dustjacket front flap now 8/6. The increased price suggests a timeframe of 1957 (compare: Biggles Makes Ends Meet).
International titles[]
Occasionally Wahlstrƶms Swedish editions carry really "imaginative" covers (see Biggles Goes Home but here the cover actually depicts a scene in the book, with accurately drawn Proctors.
- French: Biggle en Arabie (Presses de la citƩ 1950)
- Dutch: Biggles nieuwe opdracht (De Ster 1951)
- Dutch: Biggles in ArabĆÆe (Het Spectrum 1963, 1965)
- Swedish: Biggles i Arabien (Wahlstrƶms 1952)
- Czech: Biggles proto drogovƩ mafii (Riopress 1996)
- Spanish: Otra misiĆ³n para Biggles (Luis de Caralt 1959)
- Czech: Biggles proti drogovƩ mafii (Riopress 1996)
- Sinhala: ą·ą·ą¶½ą·ą¶ą·ą¶±ą· - Sultan (Tharanga)