Biggles and the Blue Moon

Biggles and the Blue Moon
Cover Art	This cover from the 1st ed. is effective. The Auster is shown (fictional registration) with a pearl (the Blue Moon) in the background. There is a reflection of a face on the pearl, perhaps Lin Seng. Biggles is shown handling the explosives which he used in one part of the story.
Author	W. E. Johns
Publisher	Brockhampton
First Published	1965
Other Editions	6 English
Period	Post World War 2, Air Police
Setting	Malaysia
See all	List of Books by W. E. Johns

Biggles and the Blue Moon by W. E. Johns was first published in May 1965 by Brockhampton Press. The events in the book take place around the mid-1960s in Malaysia.

Synopsis

Biggles is asked to help a wealthy Chinese merchant who is trapped in his countryside villa with his precious collection of rare pearls. This is no easy task considering that the jungles surrounding the remote villa harbour bandits and criminals intent on seizing the jewels. This is a typical "extraction" mission like many before. The story makes multiple references to the historical events of the Malaysia-Indonesian confrontation, an "undeclared war" which took place from 1963 to 1966 and which supplies the backdrop to the mission. Towards the end of the story, Biggles' mission is made even more difficult when invading Indonesian troops land nearby and make their way towards the villa.

The book also includes a special preface about pearls.

Plot

Note: The sections below contain spoilers. In particular, the plot subpage (click here) contains an extended summary of the narrative in the book

Characters

The Special Air Police

• Air Commodore Raymond
• Biggles
• Algy
• Ginger
• Bertie Lissie

Others

• Lin Seng
• P. Tong - Lin Seng's branch mananger in Kuala Lumpur
• Yuntan
• Chin Tusang
• Ayart
• Sosbell
• Cortello
• Sam

Aircraft

• Auster J1 Autocrat
• Mitsubishi light aircraft - chartered by Mr Tong to drop a message over Taihan. It could only have been a Mitsubishi MU-2.

Places

Visited

• Taihan
• Kuala Lumpur, capital of the Federation of Malaysia
  • Hotel Merlin, Treacher Road- an actual hotel. Biggles and Algy stayed here.

Mentioned

• Penang
• Alor Star

Other Research Notes

Chronology

• References to the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation place the events between 1963 and 1966. Actual commando landings in peninsula Malaysia, similar to what took place in the book, began in August 1964.
• References to Vietnamese government forces being pushed back by a Communist army advancing from the north suggests a date no later than the first half of 1964, since there is no mention of American involvement.

Editions

Knight Books has reissued the title several times, often with a new cover. This 1970s version is typical and shows Taihan in the background. In the foreground is a landrover which Biggles used in the story.

• Brockhampton, hbk./dj. (no. 75 on spine), 1965.
• Brockhampton, laminated boards, 1965.
• Knight Books, pbk., 1968. With subsequent impressions.

International titles

This foreign language cover comes from the Malay version published in Malaysia where the story is set. Unfortunately the publishers did not use a local image. This picture comes from one of the Knight Books issues.

• Dutch: Biggles in Malakka (Spectrum 1966, W&L, Verba)
• Malay: Biggles dan bulan biru (Eastern Universities Press 1978)
• Swedish: Biggles och Blå Månen (Wahlströms 1979)
• Icelandic: Benni og perluþjófarnir (Bokhladan 1981)
• Norwegian: Biggles og jungelpiratene (Mørtensen 1992)
• Czech: Biggles a modrý měsíc (Riopress 2002)

External links

• wikipedia: Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation