Orchids for Biggles

Orchids for Biggles
Cover Art	Cover of the 1962 1st edition.
Author	W. E. Johns
Publisher	Brockhampton
First Published	1962
Other Editions	4 English
Period	Post World War 2, Air Police
Setting	South America
See all	List of Books by W. E. Johns

Orchids for Biggles by W. E. Johns was first published in 1962 by Brockhampton. There have been 3 subsequent editions in the English language, with the most recent being the 1980 paperback edition by Knight Books. The events in the book take place in the early 1960s in South America.

Synopsis

A renegade British nuclear scientist has absconded with a stash of top secret documents and threatens to hand them over to Russia unless the British government pays a ransom of one million dollars. With three weeks left to comply, Biggles and Bertie are sent to track down the scientist and retrieve the papers from a remote town deep inside Amazonia.

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
• Bertie Lissie

Friends and allies

• Peter Fotherham - known locally as Don Pedro
• José
• Gaspard
• Señor Vargas

Others

• Harald Neckel - also using the name Luis Salvador
• Bogosoff
• Dolores
• Maria
• Carlo

Aircraft

• Gadfly

Places

Visited

• Cruzuado - Peruvian town at the tripoint border with Brazil and Bolivia
  • Villa Vanda
  • Hotel Comisaria
  • Bar Francisco
  • Casa Floresta

• Rio Jurara
• Manicore
• Porto Velho - on the Rio Madiera, transit
• Puerto Vecho - on the Rio Jurara

Mentioned

• Manaos (Manaus)
• Rumania - Neckel's nationality
• Bucharest
• Lima, Peru - Neckel's place of birth

Cultural references

• balsa, batelones, callapos - various types of local boats
• Adolf Eichmann
• Trotsky

Research Notes

• The book contains a short foreword by W. E. Johns about orchids.
• According to Biggles, the job "seems to be one in which he (Bertie) could play the dumb Englishman to advantage." But Bertie doesn't in this story.
• "Ginger is too susceptible to fever for a locality where there is bound to be plenty of it...." See, for example, Biggles Goes Home.

Editions

This cover of the 1st edition depicts the climax of the story where Biggles and Bertie in the Gadfly pursue Bogosoff who is trying to escape by canoe.

1. Leicester: Brockhampton Press, 1962. 168 pages, frontispiec by Leslie Stead but no other illustrations. Green boards with cream lettering.

• Colourful dust jacket, title in red, with author's name in white. A yellow gull wing flying boat overhead, a canoe with two men at lower left. Luxuriant vegetation all around frames the aircraft and canoe. Spine has a picture of a man in a wide brimmed hat. He is holding a rifle and wearing a bandolier. Logo "Brock Books" with a motif of a black terrier. Number 62 above it.
• The first edition is not so rare, even those with a dust jacket in good condition.

Another action packed cover, and faithful to the text. The Gadfly is flying overhead Bogosoff's canoe. According to the text, Bogosoff is wearing white!

2. London: Children's Book Club (by arrangement with Brockhampton Press), 1962. 168 pages. No illustrations. Blue boards.

• Cover art shows a yellow flying boat flying over a canoe on a broad river. There are two men in the canoe. Bogosoff, in front, is in white and is bearded. Vegetation on river banks on either side.

3. Leicester: Brockhampton Press, 1969.

This evocative cover shows an anaconda to attract young would-be readers, but they will need to go a long way into the story to meet the anaconda which Bertie tangled with.

4. London: Hodder & Stoughton (Knight Books), 1975. Paperback. 158 pages. Cover shows an anaconda rearing its head. There is a silhouette of a flying boat at top left. Behind the anaconda is an outline of an orchid.

A very strange cover art. So there is a man escaping by canoe, but what is that ancient looking monoplane doing in the picture?

5. London: Hodder & Stoughton (Knight Books), 1980 reprint. Paperback. 158 pages. Cover shows a canoe with a man paddling. There is a 1910s era monoplane with a single pilot overhead. Headshot of Biggles on the top left.

International titles

• French: Biggles au Pérou (Presses de la Cité 1962)
• Swedish: Biggles och atomprofessorn (Wahlströms 1963)
• Malay: Sekalung anggerek untuk Biggles (Eastern Universities Press 1978)
• Czech: Orchideje pro Bigglese (Riopress 2003)