Biggles Cuts It Fine by W. E. Johns was first published in 1954 by Hodder and Stoughton. There have 3 editions in total in the English language, all by Hodder & Stoughton. The events in the book take place in the mid-1950s in the Southern oceans.
Synopsis[]
Intelligence sources have discovered that highly trained personnel from behind the Iron Curtain have been departing on board long-range submarines. In some cases, the submarines have returned without them. There is a suspicion that they might be setting up secret bases on remote islands with the intention of disrupting vital air and sea lanes in time of war. Biggles and co. are given a roving commission to explore the British and French territories in the South Indian Ocean for signs of "unwelcome tenants". With their friend Marcel Brissac, they fly to some of the most desolate places in the world: tiny islands frequently more than a thousand miles from their next nearest neighbour.
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
- Algy Lacey
- Ginger Hebblethwaite
- Bertie Lissie
Friends and allies[]
Others[]
- Captain and mate of the Lady Alice - told Biggles Alf Robinson had borrowed money off the captain and then disappeared. Mate last saw him with two strangers in a dockside pub.
- Chief Inspector at Cape Town - told Biggles about attempted murder of Alf Robinson.
- Adam Grey
Aircraft[]
Ships[]
- Kittiwake - Captain Legett, Master
- Lady Alice
- H.M.S. Pelican
- Unnamed Russian submarine
Places[]
Visited[]
- French Southern and Antarctic Lands
- St. Paul Island
- Amsterdam Island
- Kerguelen - landed for Marcel to do a photo survey
- Crozet Islands
- Hog Island (today called Pig Island)
- Deliverance Bay
- Possession Island
- Penguin Island
- Lake Desolate
- The Apostles
- East Island
- Hog Island (today called Pig Island)
- Marion Island
- Prince Edward Island
- Cape Town
- Marine airport
- Airport Hotel
- Airport - likely to be Wingfield Aerodrome given the date
- Western Australia
Mentioned[]
- Raymond's discourse on remote islands and those mentioned during air search but not visited:
- Dougherty Island was first mentioned in Biggles' Second Case.
- Falcon Island - more properly wikipedia: Fonuafoʻou Fonuafoʻou in the Tonga group.
- Tosca Island - more properly Torca Island near Amboyna.
- Krakatoa
- Kerguelen--Biggles recalls his visit there in Second Case.
- Clipperton Island--Raymond does get it quite right. There were some survivors. Here he lectures Biggles about Clipperton. In Biggles and the Deep Blue Sea, Biggles lectures him about it.
- Heard Island
- Amsterdam Island - see Meridian (ship) below.
- Swains Island in the South Seas is owned by the Jennings family. It was in the news around the time the book was written because of a labour dispute involving the landowners and indentured labour
- Rose Island, or Rose Atoll in American Samoa - Raymond said it was bought in 1870 for a pound (a five-dollar bill) but details of this are hard to find. It was assigned to American Samoa in a partition of the Samoa group agreed in 1899.
- Canton (or Kanton) Island - Canton. Raymond is accurate about a policy of joint occupation agreed upon, in 1939,
- Saint Paul - A lobster cannery was attempted on St. Paul Island but this was in 1929 and it closed in 1930. So it was old news for Marcel.[1]
- Korea, Malaya, Africa - areas the British military was preoccupied with
- Wapping, London
- Hobart, Tasmania
- Magellan Strait
- Falklands Islands
- Panama Canal
Cultural references[]
- Alexander Selkirk
- Robinson Crusoe
- Marion de Fresne
- Captain Distance - introduced Hogs to Hog Island in 1834.[2]
- Captain Nare - found no more hogs on Hog Island.[3]
- Ships and shipwrecks[4]
- Wakefield (passed Heard Island in 1910) - see Warratah
- Warratah - see SS Waratah
- Strathmore - see Strathmore
- Adventure - probably the Aventure, 1825.[5]
- Prince of Wales - more properly, Princess of Wales. See Princess of Wales (1796 sloop)
- Meridian - did get shipwrecked at Amsterdam Island in 1853. Most of the crew and passengers survived and were rescued after 12 days.[6]
- Cape Argus newspaper
- Housewives' Choice - BBC music request programme of the 1940s and 1950s.
Research notes[]
References to the past[]
Incongruities[]
Chronology[]
Biggles rides a B.O.A.C. Comet and the book was published in 1954. Therefore it had to be a Comet 1 and passenger service for that type began in February 1952 and the fleet was grounded after April 1954.
Editions[]
International titles[]
- Swedish: Nåra ögat för Biggles (Bonniers 1954, Wahlströms 1976)
- French: Biggles l'échappe belle (Presses de la Cité 1955)
- Danish: Biggles ta'r chancen (Grafisk Forlag 1957, 1968)
- Czech: Biggles a tajná základna (Riopress 1995)
References[]
- ↑ Wikipedia article on Oubliés de île Saint Paul (the forgotten of St. Paul)
- ↑ James Clark Ross, "A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions" (London: John Murray, 1847), 47.
- ↑ C. Wylie Thomson, Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-76, (London: H.M. Govt, 1885), Part I, 320-321.
- ↑ It is possible that one of Johns' sources was: Edward N. Hoare, Perils of the Deep, (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1885). The whole of Part II Chapter 3 is devoted to shipwrecks at the Crozet Islands and includes details about the Strathmore, The Aventure and the Princess of Wales.
- ↑ See here: Le naufrage de l’Aventure (1825)
- ↑ See this article on the Meridian wreck for example