Biggles in the Blue

Biggles in the Blue
Cover Art	Cover of the 1980 Knight paperback edition.
Author	W. E. Johns
Publisher	Brockhampton
First Published	1953
Other Editions	9 English
Period	Post World War 2, Air Police
Setting	Caribbean

Biggles in the Blue by W. E. Johns was first published in 1953 by Brockhampton. There have been 9 subsequent editions in the English language. The events in the book take place in the early 1950s in the Caribbean.

Synopsis

Biggles is sent to Jamaica to recover a cache of secret papers--blueprints of German secret weapons under development at the end of World War Two. Their owner, Werner Wolff, had been living in Jamaica under an assumed name for many years. Unfortunately, Wolff had died without revealing where he hid his papers. There are few clues to go on, just a tracing of a oval shape with a little Square on it. And Biggles must move fast because his old adversary, von Stalhein, now in the employ of a secret service behind the Iron Curtain, is in Jamaica hunting for the same thing,

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

• Josephine

• Dr Douglas

• Commander Evans

• Susannah Shaw

• Major Charles

Others

• Erich von Stalhein - at this time a free-lance operative with headquarters behind the iron curtain. 28k

• Boris Zorotov

• Werner Wolff

• Napoleon Morgan

• Johnston - a chemist in Kingston

Aircraft

• Otter amphibian - first appearance of this frustratingly elusive aircraft.

Ships

• Vega - Wolff's yacht
• unknown submarine operated by von Stalhein's allies.

Places

Visited

• Jamaica
  • Columbus Bay
  • Rumkeg Haven, Tew's Anchorage
  • Maison Respiro Hotel
  • Johnston's chemist shop, Aclim Street, Kingston

• Great Inagua

Mentioned

• Hotel Prinz Karl, Zindenplatze, East Berlin

Research Notes

• The Sick List - Algy. Shot in the thigh by Napoleon Morgan, a fortnight in hospital.

International titles

• French: Biggles à la Jamaique (Presses de la Cité 1953)
• Swedish: Biggles farligaste fiende (Wahlströms 1954)
• Italian: Biggles nelle lagune (C.E.L.I. 1959)
• Czech: Biggles - Bermudský trojúhelník (Toužimsky & Moravec 1999)