Biggles Takes a Holiday

Biggles Takes a Holiday
Cover Art	The Swedish Wahlströms ungdomsböcker covers usually feature aircraft to attract the youth market. Here they take an excursion into hats! Perhaps evocative of a holiday in an exotic place. That's probably Ginger wearing it.
Publisher	Hodder and Stoughton
First Published	1949
Period	Post World War 2, Air Police
Setting	South America
See all	List of Books by W. E. Johns

Biggles Takes a Holiday by W. E. Johns was first published in 1949 by Hodder and Stoughton. The events in the book take place just after World War 2 in South America.

This title has seen multiple translations in the European languages. A particularly interesting adaptation is Le secret de Linton, a French comic strip version published from Jan 1972 in four issues of the Tina small format magazine. This adaptation feature Worrals and Frecks instead of Biggles!

Synopsis

Through a man dying from a tropical disease, Biggles gets a message from his old squadron mate Angus Mackail. He is in trouble and Biggles and co. decide they must try to rescue him. Everything must, of course, be unofficial, so Biggles "takes a holiday" from his police duties.

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

• Linton
• Angus Mackail
• Joe Clarke
• Lil Clarke
• Tom Brigham
• Carson
• Louis
• Digger Saxby
• Pete Vandall
• Mrs Harboard
• Ivor Jones
• Cyrus Walder
• Sir Gyles Sayers

Others

• Dr Rodnitz Liebgarten
• Pedro
• Erich von Stalhein
• Dr Paul Stitzen
• Colonel Jose Durango
• Johann Kraft
• Elizabeth the panther

Aircraft

• Navigator amphibian - the title page of the 1st ed. depicts a Consolidated Catalina, which would have been suitable. For some reason the text describes the colour scheme as "heavily camouflaged"?

Places

Visited

• London Hospital for Tropical Diseases
• Paradise Valley
• Buenos Aires
• Palito River
• Rio Parana
• Rio de la Plata
• Dakar - transit stop
• Natal - transit stop
• Rio de Janeiro - transit (overflight)

Mentioned

• Argentia, Paraguay, Bolivia - Paradise Valley is around where the borders meet.
• Montevideo

Cultural references

• Blackwater fever
• Chopin - Liebgarten's preferred composer.

Other Research Notes

• Ginger's stamp collecting hobby is depicted in Chapter 1.
• "Crime and the Aeroplane" - a handbook that Biggles is preparing.
• Both Biggles and Ginger understand Spanish. Chapter 4.
• von Stalhein about Biggles: "He has no weight behind him and his hands are more like a woman's than a man's."

References to the past

• Angus Mackail was apparently invalided out of service because of a crash he had in Burma. See Biggles in the Orient.
• Angus has a talisman, a buckled Spandau bullet that went through the engine cowling and fell into his lap without hurting him.

Chronology

• There's a fire in the fireplace at Mount Street.

Editions

• Hodder and Stoughton, 1949, several impressions thereafter
• Children's Book Club, 1951
• Hodder and Stoughton, Hampton Library, 1952
• Included in The Biggles Adventure Omnibus, Hodder and Stoughton, 1965
• ‎House of Stratus, 2001
• Canelo, 2022

International titles

• Dutch: Biggles gaat met verlof (De Ster)
• Dutch: Biggles in de vallei des doods (Het Spectrum 1966)
• Norwegian: Biggles i urskogen (Forslagshuset 1950)
• Swedish: Biggles i Paradisdalen (Wahlströms 1950)
• Danish: Biggles stiller ultimatum (Grafisk Forlag 1953)
• Finnish: Biggles Paratiisinlaaksossa (Pellervo-Seura 1954)
• French: Biggles en permission (Presses de a cité 1950)
• Czech: Biggles má prázdniny (Toužimsky & Moravec 1996)