Biggles Flies Again by W. E. Johns was first published in August, 1934 by John Hamilton. There have been at least 14 subsequent editions in the English language. The book is a collection of short stories most of which had first appeared in Popular Flying from 1933 onwards. The events in the stories take place in the interwar years when Biggles and Algy traveled around the world in search of work and adventure. Biggles Flies Again is notable for the introduction of the Vickers Vandal which will reappear in many of the interwar novels.
Synopsis[]
Biggles with Algy and Smyth travel around the world in search of work and adventure. They begin with an aerial survey job in South America. Subsequent stories take them to the Pacific islands, thence to Asia and the Red Sea before they finally return to Britain.
Research notes[]
- A very important change took place in the Thames Publishing Co editions which first came out circa 1950. The stories were edited and updated to make them more modern for a new generation of young readers. References to the First World War were changed to the Second World War. Aircraft names were replaced with those of newer types. Anything which could pin the stories down to the interwar years was removed. This had a disastrous effect on continuity and set up tremendous anachronisms. See individual stories for details.
Chronology[]
- See The Gold Rush and The Oriental Touch for notes on chronology.
Editions[]
International titles[]
- Czech: Biggles letí kolem světa (Toužimský & Moravec 1939, Riopress 1994)
- Swedish: Biggles i tropikerna (Wahlströms 1944)
- French: Biggles reprend le manche (Presses de la Cité 1952)
- Malay: Biggles terbang lagi (Eastern Universities Press 1979)
- Norwegian: Biggles på nye eventyr (Mørtensen 1992)