THE DEAN & SON BIGGLES BOOKS

TEN W.E. JOHNS BIGGLES BOOKS WERE PUBLISHED BY DEAN & SON LTD IN THE 1960s.

THE EXACT DATES OF PUBLICATION ARE DIFFICULT TO DETERMINE (* SEE BOTTOM OF PAGE) AS ALL DEAN & SON BOOKS ARE UNDATED AND WERE REPRINTED MANY TIMES.

HOWEVER SOME IDEAS OF PUBLICATION DATES ARE GIVEN BY WHETHER YOUR COPY CONTAINS A ‘SBN’ (STANDARD BOOK NUMBER) OR NOT.

W.H. SMITH AND OTHER EXPERTS IN THE BOOK TRADE DEVISED THE ‘SBN’ IN 1966 AND IMPLEMENTED IT IN 1967. THIS WAS A NINE DIGIT NUMBER UNIQUE TO EACH BOOK.

THE ‘SBN’ WAS EVENTUALLY REPLACED IN THE UK BY THE 10 DIGIT ‘ISBN’ (INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER) IN 1974. BOOKS WITH A ‘SBN’ MUST BE POST 1967.

THESE TEN BOOKS FEATURED UNIQUE COVER ARTWORK AND YOU CAN SEE THESE COVERS HERE

TWO OF THEM WERE ORIGINAL FIRST EDITIONS – BUT THE OTHER EIGHT WERE MERELY REPRINTS – ALTHOUGH SOME ARE RE-TITLED

IF YOU CLICK ON ANY OF THE TEN DUST JACKET PICTURES BELOW YOU CAN ENLARGE THEM TO SEE THEM IN DETAIL

All of these books were originally printed with unpriced dust jackets but they originally sold for 2/6 – that being two shillings and 6 pence. In “new” money that is 12.5 pence

184 PAGES This book contains no illustrations and no publishing date. Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy contains a SBN reference number 603 03405 5 This book contains ELEVEN (of the 17) stories from the first Biggles book THE CAMELS ARE COMING with TWO additional stories from BIGGLES OF THE CAMEL SQUADRON BIGGLES PIONEER AIR FIGHTER – CLICK HERE TO SEE DETAILS OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION PUBLISHED BY THAMES	184 PAGES This book contains no illustrations and no publishing date. Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy has no SBN reference number. This book is a reprint of the second Biggles book THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR – but edited. You don’t get the scene where Algy fights the snake on top of the plane in the Chapter “A Night of Horror”. This is because in the reprint they decided to modernise the plane to make it more contemporary and so the scene had to go because it wasn’t possible on a modern plane! BIGGLES IN THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION
182 PAGES This book contains no illustrations and no publishing date. Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy contains a SBN reference number 603 03404 7 This book contains ELEVEN (of the 13) stories from the third Biggles book BIGGLES OF THE CAMEL SQUADRON. The two stories that were omitted had already appeared in BIGGLES PIONEER AIR FIGHTER – See details above. BIGGLES OF THE CAMEL SQUADRON – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION	183 PAGES This book contains no illustrations. Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy contains a SBN reference number 603 03402 0 This book is a reprint of the fourth Biggles book BIGGLES FLIES AGAIN. BIGGLES FLIES AGAIN – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION
184 PAGES This book contains no illustrations. Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy has no SBN reference number. This book is a reprint of the fifth Biggles book THE BLACK PERIL but significantly altered. You can find more detail at the link below. BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION	151 PAGES This book contains no illustrations. Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy contains a SBN reference number 603 03410 1 BIGGLES AIR DETECTIVE – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION
183 PAGES This book contains no illustrations. Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy contains a SBN reference number 603 03408 X BIGGLES OF THE SPECIAL AIR POLICE – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION	183 PAGES This book contains no illustrations but probably has the best cover illustration of any Biggles book! Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy contains a SBN reference number – prefixed with the letters SBN this time - SBN 603 03407 1. BIGGLES OF 266 – CLICK HERE TO SEE DETAILS OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION PUBLISHED BY THAMES
184 PAGES THIS BOOK IS AN ORIGINAL BIGGLES FIRST EDITION! This book contains no illustrations. Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy contains a SBN reference number 603 03409 8 BIGGLES FLIES TO WORK – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION	182 PAGES THIS BOOK IS AN ORIGINAL BIGGLES FIRST EDITION! This book contains no illustrations. Printing information says “Made and printed in Great Britain by Purnell and Sons, Ltd, Paulton (Somerset) and London”. My copy contains a SBN reference number 603 03401 2 THE BOY BIGGLES – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION

BELOW IS A PICTURE OF THE SPINES OF THESE TEN BOOKS

THESE TEN BOOKS WERE THEN REPUBLISHED AS LAMINATED EDITIONS WITH EXACTLY THE SAME COVERS AS ABOVE – EARLY TO MID 1970s -

THE SAME TEN BOOKS WERE THEN REPUBLISHED AS LAMINATED EDITIONS WITH DIFFERENT COVERS AS BELOW, FEATURING SOME GREAT ARTWORK

- AROUND THE LATE 1970s -

BIGGLES FLIES AGAIN	BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL
BIGGLES OF THE CAMEL SQUADRON	BIGGLES PIONEER AIR FIGHTER
BIGGLES AND THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR	BIGGLES OF THE SPECIAL AIR POLICE
BIGGLES OF 266	BIGGLES FLIES TO WORK
BIGGLES AIR DETECTIVE	THE BOY BIGGLES
THE SPINES OF THE BOOKS ALL OF THESE BOOKS HAD THE SAME BACK

THESE TEN BOOKS WERE REPUBLISHED IN 1985 AGAIN AS LAMINATED EDITIONS BUT WITH DIFFERENT COVERS AGAIN – FEATURING SILHOUTETTES

THE BOY BIGGLES	BIGGLES OF THE CAMEL SQUADRON
BIGGLES PIONEER AIR FIGHTER	BIGGLES OF 266
BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL	BIGGLES FLIES AGAIN
BIGGLES AND THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR	BIGGLES OF THE SPECIAL AIR POLICE
BIGGLES FLIES TO WORK	BIGGLES AIR DETECTIVE
THE SPINES OF THE BOOKS ALL OF THESE BOOKS HAD THE SAME BACK (except the ISBN numbers differed, running from 0-603-03401 to 03410)

* I AM GRATEFUL TO KIM MILES FROM AUSTRALIA FOR INFORMING ME THAT THE ORIGINAL DEAN & SON BOOKS DO HAVE PUBLICATION DATES IN THEM!

THEY ARE JUST VERY HARD TO ACCESS! I HAD TO DESTROY A BOOK TO DO SO …….. I DON’T RECOMMEND DOING THIS TO ANY BOOK YOU WANT TO KEEP.

THE PUBLICATION DATE IS BEHIND THE FRONT PASTEDOWN ON THE VERY INNER COVER OF THE BOOK.

I OBTAINED THE PICTURE ABOVE BY SOAKING A COVER IN WATER AND PEELING OFF THE PAPER ON THE APPARENTLY BLANK PAGE STUCK TO THE INNER FRONT COVER OF THE BOOK

YOU CAN THEN SEE THE PUBLISHER’S NAME, BOOK TITLE AND WHEN IT WAS PUBLISHED. THERE IS A WAY OF SEEING THIS INFORMATION WITHOUT DESTROYING THE BOOK. READ HOW TO DO IT HERE

http://www.biggles.info/Details/47/Dating/

YOU CAN FIND OUT MUCH MORE DETAILED INFORMATION ABOUT THE PUBLICATION DATES OF THE MANY ‘DEAN & SON’ REPRINTS AT THIS EXCELLENT WEB SITE HERE

http://www.biggles-online.com/

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