Cigarettes

Just how significantly do cigarettes feature in the lives of our friends? Does the the chance of getting a cigarette dictate the course of their actions? Did ever a cigarette butt give their presence away? Here are all the occurences of cigarettes in Johns's stories.

• Sergeant Bigglesworth C.I.D.
  • Breaking the ice: Biggles offers one to Raymond in Chapter 1, later accepts one from Howarth at Augsburg.
  • Thinking: as in Chapter 2 and 4. Sometimes it is to
  • Relieve tension or demonstrate calm. He lights a cigarette while walking through a minefield in Chapter 8, accepts one from Gontermann who has just taken him prisoner in Chapter 9, and lights one while waiting for Toureg tribesmen to decide onn their fate in Chapter 13.
  • Comic relief: When Bertie interuppts a tense moment with comic bravado, it is with a cigarette in his mouth in Chapter 14.
  • In Chapter 18, At the end of the mission Biggles tells Raymond that their bounty should keep them in cigarettes "for a day or two".
• Biggles' Second Case
  • Chapter 1. Just casually passing the time.
  • Chapter 8. "Algy dropped his cigarette." Not often is Algy described smoking.
  • Chapter 17-18. Relieve tension. Biggles has just stepped carefully out of a bog. He sits to have a cigarette. Later after a firefight, he does the same.
• Biggles Hunts Big Game
  • Biggles rolls Robinson's thousand pound note into a spill and lights a cigarette with it.
  • Biggles accepts a cigar from Robinson--he doesn't normally accept cigars. He expected Robinson's cigar was not "normal".
• The Case of the Visiting Sultan
  • Biggles helps himself to one during a briefing by Raymond.
• Biggles Takes a Holiday
  • Chapter 1. While discussing the case. And again in Chapter 2.
  • Breaking the ice. Chapter 3. Biggles offers Joe Clarke a gasper.
  • Breaking the ice. Chapter 6. Biggles plied Pedro with cigarettes and also lights some himself to keep Pedro in a placid mood and also to buy time.
  • Relieve tension?. Chapter 11. While holding Liebgarten and von Stalhein captive.
  • Chapter 15: "Bertie, monocle in eye, smoke curling from a cigarette between his lips...."
• Biggles Breaks the Silence
  • Breaking the ice. Chapter 1. Biggles offers Jumbo Grimes cigarettes but he prefers his pipe.
  • Thinking. Several occasions when he considered what the best course of action is. E.g. Chapter 13: "Give me a minute and I may work the thing out ... Nothing more was said. Biggles Iit another cigarette."
  • Relieve tension. Especially Chapter 10: "Leaning against the machine he smoked cigarette after cigarette to steady his nervous impatience...."
• Biggles Gets His Men
  • Relieve tension or demonstrate calm. Chapter 4. After being shot down, Ginger finds Biggles sitting on a fallen tree smoking a cigarette.
  • Later, while holding von Stalhein captive in Chapter 13, we see "Biggles smoking as if nothing unusual was happening...."
  • Thinking. Chapter 6. While briefing the team on the mission plan.
• Another Job for Biggles.
  • Vehicle of crime: In Chapter 1 Raymond shows Biggles a cigarette doped with gurra as the nub of the problem at hand. It looks normal and in terms of smell is only a little different with a slight aromatic flavour which is actually pleasant. It's easy to smuggle and use, crooks can stupefy an innocent victim by simply offering a cigarette. At the same time, Biggles and Raymond are smoking! Are they so sure their cigarettes are not tampered with?
  • Thinking and
  • Relieve tension: Chapter 5, as Biggles considers what to do because he may have put Zahar's life at risk. Also in Chapter 6 when they are carefully examining aircraft for further signs of sabotage. In Chapter 11, to show that he remains calm, he lights a cigarette when confronted by Ambrimos. In Chapter 14, as a prisoner, Biggles smokes "cigarette after cigarette" as a means of "keeping the flies at a distance and off-setting ... the disgusting stink" of the place. Ginger does not smoke, it seems. In Chapter 14, Biggles lights a cigarette and commends Bertie who has just rescued them. At this point he is still clingly on to a rope from a fig tree in order to escape flood waters released when Bertie blew up a dam!
  • Giveaway: In Chapter 10 Bertie finds a stub of the brand Biggles used, which tells him Biggles has been at Aerodrome 137.
• The Renegade
  • Raymond and Biggles smoke during the briefing, as always.
• African Assignment
  • Briefing by Raymond.
  • Thinking. "...tapped it pensively on the back of his hand...." "It took him twenty minutes to reach a decision."
  • Biggles becomes suspicious about a cigarette tin from an unusual brand.
• The Case of the Secret Aerofoil
  • When discussing the case with Ginger.
• Biggles Follows On
  • Breaking the ice. The adjutant at Caterham was cold until Biggles showed his credentials. Then he thawed and offered Biggles a cigarette.
  • Chapter 3, when discussing case with the others.
• Biggles in the Blue
  • Not too much in the way of cigareettes here. Raymond doesn't smoke or offer any during the briefing. Perhaps he was overly preoccupied.
  • Demonstrate calm. Chapter 10. When confronting von Stalhein on Inagua. "Biggles drew gently on his cigarette".
  • Breaking the ice. Biggles offers a cigarette to Susannah Shaw to win her trust.
• Biggles in Australia
  • Chapter 9. When discussing a knotty problem with Bill Gilson and later when surveying the scene of Hopkin's death.
  • Chapter 9. To demonstrate calm, Biggles lights another cigarette during a confrontation with a group of aborigines.
• Biggles in the Gobi
  • Chapter 1. The obligatory offer of cigarettes during Raymond's briefing.
• Biggles Cuts It Fine
  • Chapter 1. Raymond's briefing
• Biggles Nets a Fish
  • Biggles smokes a few while deep in thought sitting by bridge across a stream at Heatherstone.
• The Case of the Lunatic at Large
  • Biggles offers one to Glibb as a means of breaking the ice and calming him down.
• The Case of the Flying Clown
  • Biggles offers a cigarette to Paddy O'Shea to break the ice and get him to talk.
• The Case of the Phone Box Murder
  • Biggles lights a cigarette when being questioned by a crook.
• The Unknown Diamonds
  • Briefing by Raymond. Also, Biggles offers some to a group of bushmen to break the ice. They accepted the offer but not with grreat enthusiasm--they were already amply supplied with tobacco.
• Biggles Foreign Legionnaire. Cigarettes play a big role in this story, showing up in almost every significant interaction between characters.
  • Raymond offers cigarettes during the initial discussion in Chapter 1.
  • Chapter 2. Voudron offers Ginger a cigarette when he is trying to plant the seed that Ginger might not like the legion. This is one of the few occasions when the text describes Ginger as smoking--"he lit his cigarette to hide his face lest it should reveal what was passing in his mind...."
  • Chapter 3. Marcel lights a cigarette while waiting for a secret meeting with Biggles and Ginger.
  • Chapter 5. Voudron offers cigarettes again, when he floats the idea of desertion.
  • Chapter 7. A sympathetic crowd offers Ginger and Biggles wine and cigarettes, siding with them against a gendarme who wanted to arrest them.
  • Chapter 8. Raban offers cigarettes when he wanted to find out what went wrong with the theft of the plane. He didn't offer them when he first met them before the mission.
  • Chapter 9. Biggles takes a cigarette from his case at the Aladdin's Lamp while pushing off aoo of Charlie's efforts at hospitality.
  • Chapter 12. On arrival at the Valley of the Tartars, the first question of the (highly demoralised) gang members was where were the cigarettes promised to them and why Biggles and Ginger didn't bring any.
  • Chapter 14. Trapped in a fort surrounded by Kurdish tribesmen, Biggles and von Stalhein agree to a truce. Biggles asks for a cigarette and von Stalhein offers one.
  • Chapter 16. Upon being rescued by Raymond, Biggles tells him that things were a bit sticky and "the deuce of it was we hadn't a cigarette between us. Can anyone oblige?"
  • Chapter 16. Raymond offers Biggles a cigarette. He then offers one to von Stalhein. "This is something I never expected to do." Von Stalhein takes one and replies: "And this sir ... is something I never expected to do."
• Biggles' Chinese Puzzle (short story)
  • Smokes a cigarette while sitting on his hotel bed thinking about the case.
• The Case of the Modern Pirate. Biggles offers Raymond one during the briefing.
• The Mystery of the Torn Parachute
  • At various points in the story, when staking out Mrs William's house, and during debrief with Raymond.
• The Case of the Missing Constable
  • Smokes one in the churchyard--he's contaminating the crime scene! But it helps him find something.
• The Case of the Secret Inquisitors
  • Smokes one in the hotel, another at conclusion of case.
• Operation Starlight
  • Smokes one while passing the time.
• No Rest for Biggles
  • Biggles' Hastings has just been forced down. Biggles smokes one while waiting for his captors to arrive. Possibly a demonstration of nonchalance.
• Biggles Makes Ends Meet.
  • Chapter 12. Biggles breaks into the office of a head crook on an island in the Nicobars. Besides collecting valuable documents as evidence, he says: "I hoped to find some cigarettes in the Colonel's room, but I couldn't see any". Earlier, he had left his wet cigarettes on a rock at a beach to dry. It is in the act of collecting his cigarettes that they are spotted and their presence on the island given away. Later, in chapter 16, "Biggles produced a much discoloured cigarette and lit it. 'I should have asked the Colonel if he had any gaspers to spare,' he murmured, smiling faintly...."
• Biggles' Combined Operation.
  • Breaking the ice. Chapter 1. Biggles turns down Eddie Ross's offer of a cigar and lights his own cigarette.
  • Thinking. Chapter 11. Biggles smokes two cigarettes as he considers the best course of action. "Ginger, aware that he was faced by a big decision, did not interrupt."
• Orchids for Biggles
  • Breaking the ice - almost every briefing by Raymond is accompanied by cigarettes. This is no exception.
• Biggles Sorts It Out.
  • Thinking Chapter 5. At Fernly village Biggles smokes as he ponders the case, and again Chapter 10 when he is exploring Fort Schwarz.
  • Relieve tension. Chapter 14. Needs a cigarette to recover from the shock of falling when a staircase collapsed under him. He lost his petrol lighter during the fall which gave his presence away.
  • Chapter 15. Browning asks Biggles and Bertie for a cigarette.