Biggles and the Black Mask

Biggles and the Black Mask
Cover Art	Cover of the book.
Author	W. E. Johns
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
First Published	1964
Other Editions	4 English
Period	Post World War 2, Air Police
Setting	Britain, France
See all	List of Books by W. E. Johns

Biggles and the Black Mask by W. E. Johns was first published in 1964 by Hodder and Stoughton. There have been 4 subsequent editions in the English language. The events in the book take place in the early 1960s in Britain and the French riviera. The story is also included in the 1985 omnibus volume The Best of Biggles.

Starting from Biggles and the Plane That Disappeared, this is the third novel in a row where Algy does not appear at all.

Synopsis

"I have the old-fashioned notion that once a man starts swindling ... in most cases he goes on doing it...."

So, when Biggles notices that an ex-R.A.F. pilot with a track record for dishonesty is granted a licence to operate an air charter company, he decides to take a closer look.

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/Scotland Yard

• Air Commodore Raymond
• Biggles
• Ginger Hebblethwaite
• Bertie Lissie
• Gaskin

Friends and allies

• Marcel Brissac
• Sergeant Jules Picot
• Badger

Others

• Roderick Canson
• Rawlings
• Tomlin
• Cedric Adrian Fortescue
• Armand Mattio

Aircraft

• de Havilland Dove
• Auster J1 Autocrat
• Percival Proctor

Places

Visited

• Millham
• Nice - a lot of place and street names are mentioned, more than is normal in a typical Johns novel. Johns had extensive local knowledge. Still, it is not clear if all of them are actual locations.
  • Nice Airport
  • Hotel Ruhl
  • Jardin du Roi Albert
  • Place Messina
  • Nice Old Town
  • Ruelle Francois Leroux
  • Rue Baldini
  • Quai des Etats Unis
• Cap d'Antibes

Research notes

• In Biggles and the Plane That Disappeared it was mentioned that Algy was away in India assisting with a gold smuggling case. In this book, he is not mentioned at all and his absence is not explained.
• Nice is described in some detail. This was likely to be a place which Johns liked and knew well. There is a complete section describing the history of the old town of Nice. Some street names are fictional, though, or have changed. Almost to excuse this, he states that: "In France it is a custom to name streets after persons; but as these are sometimes changed, it can be confusing."

Incongruities

• The mention of a British Airways early morning flight to Nice from London (Chapter 14 para. 1) is possibly anachronistic. British Airways only came into being in 1974 whilst the book was first published in 1964. The airline which would have flown that route would have been British European Airways. If Johns meant the prewar British Airways Ltd, this company was merged into B.O.A.C. in 1940 and ceased to exist. This detail comes from a 1974 Knight Books edition. Perhaps this is the result of an editorial change from the 1964 1st ed. in order to modernize the setting. Or else it was simply an abbreviated way to refer to B.E.A.

International titles

• French: Biggles et la masque noir (Spirale 1967)
• Malay: Biggles dan topeng hitam (Eastern Universities Press 1978)
• Swedish: Biggles och Mr X (Wahlströms 1987)
• Czech: Biggles - černá maska (Toužimsky & Moravec 1999}