The Black Peril

THE BLACK PERIL

This page details the differences between the original John Hamilton published version of THE BLACK PERIL published in 1935 and the later subsequent Dean and Son reprints published in the 1950's and 1960's as BIGGLES AND THE BLACK PERIL. The differences are shown by me taking an original Dean and Son reprint and then hand amending it page by page to convert the text into the original text that was in the John Hamilton edition. Every change is recorded, even if it is only a missing or additional exclamation mark or hyphen. You can imagine how long it took me to do! I did this some twenty years ago and I have now put scans up of the pages so you can see the actual differences page by page. The bulk of the changes appear to have been to update the book from the year when it was set (referred to in the original text as 1934) to make it more modern for the time it was reprinted. It was first reprinted by the Thames Publishing Company around 1950/51. The Dean & Son reprints appeared in the early 1960s, starting around 1961. The original aircraft in the John Hamilton first edition is a "Vandal". Every reference to the Vandal becomes something else in the later editions, usually the "amphibian". All references to the "Vandal" and its performance and appearance are changed. The updated story also removes all references to Germany to reflect the post Second World War enemies as the Russians.

THE CHANGES

The first chapter is shown below in different coloured fonts. I tried to explain the changes line by line before I realised that was an incredible amount of work for the whole book.

After the description to the changes in the first chapter, you can click on the actual chapter headings to jump to scans of my hand written amendments on the book itself and then move from page to page.

As an extra special treat you can also see the original extended ending from THE MODERN BOY (dated 13^th April 1935) which was cut for the book publication!

Dean Page Number 7 - Five lines down insert the word "vandal" before amphibian. Eleven lines up, amend the sentence "They had travelled by road to the aerodrome" to read "They had travelled by road to the Brooklands aerodrome where they had parked the amphibian after their return from South America. There is then a footnote adding the digit "1" to the end of "South America" and at the bottom is added the footnote "Read 'The Cruise of the Condor by the same author"

Dean Page Number 8 - Top line, replace the word "home" by the words "to Brooklands". Seven lines up from the bottom where the paragraph finished "maximum speed" add the new sentence "The revolution counter needle vibrated and crept upwards and the air speed indicator leapt from ninety miles an hour to a hundred and ten"

Dean Page Number 9 - Eleven lines down there is a line which reads "the machine tilted in a swift "S" turn, side-slipped, flattened out" (which incidentally is the line illustrated by the colour frontispiece of the Hamilton edition). The word machine should be replaced by the word "Vandal"

Dean Page Number 10 - Top line, the words "Fog is the dickens" do not appear in the Hamilton edition so should be deleted.

Dean Page Number 13 - Eleven lines down the passage "Written in Russian, which I can't read to any extent said Biggles, turning the paper over. Murski - looks like a name. Well I'm dashed" should actually read "Gesellschaft Deutsche Contermann. Berlin, read Biggles turning the paper over. Well I'm dashed." Then eleven lines up from the bottom the words "Russian machinery" should read "German machinery".

Dean Page Number 14 - Four lines down, after the word "hydrants" insert "Aren't they?". Thirteen lines up "Buried fiddlesticks!" has no exclamation mark on it in the Hamilton edition. In the bottom line, the words "manhole-cover" are not hyphenated in the Hamilton edition.

Dean Page Number 15 - Seventeen lines up, the word "Russian" should be "German" and thirteen lines up, "Murski, Moscow" was originally "Gontermann. Berlin" (this being an error in the original book as earlier it had been Contermann with a 'C'!). The last words of the page continuing to page 16 are "their air-craft" which should read "the Vandal"

Dean Page Number 16 - Nine lines down "this way too!" did not have an exclaimation mark on it originally. Seventeen lines down, after the words "Big R.A.F. bomber, perhaps?" should be inserted a further passage. "The only service bombers we have are fitted with Rolls Kestrels or Napier Lions, and those we can hear are certainly neither of those. There are half a dozen engines at least, and we've nothing that size in this country". "Two or three machines doing exercises perhaps""

Dean Page Number 17 - Four lines down, "my suggestion" was originally "your suggestion". Nine lines up from the bottom "their senses" was originally "their brains". Seven lines up, the words "grass-covered" were not originally hyphenated.

Dean Page Number 18 - Bottom line, "our aircraft" was originally "the Vandal"

Dean Page Number 19 - Six lines down "I can't just make her out" originally read "I can just make her out. Looks as big as the Do.X." Eleven lines up from the bottom, the word "aircraft" should read "Vandal".

Dean Page Number 21 - Eight lines up and fourteen lines up the word "amphibian" should read "Vandal"

Dean Page 22 - Eight lines down, the sentence "Silence answered him" originally just read "Silence."

Dean Page 23 - Ten lines up the word "home" originally read "to Brooklands".

CHAPTER ONE - FORCED DOWN

(Dean Pages 7 to 23 but originally Hamilton pages 9 to 29)

CHAPTER TWO - GINGER TAKES A HAND

(Dean Pages 24 to 42 but originally Hamilton pages 30 to 52)

CHAPTER THREE - A RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHT

(Dean Pages 43 to 49 but originally Hamilton pages 53 to 60)

CHAPTER FOUR - IN THE ENEMY CAMP

(Dean Pages 50 to 58 but originally Hamilton pages 61 to 71)

CHAPTER FIVE - RESCUE