BIGGLES IN FRANCE
THE BOYS’ FRIEND LIBRARY PUBLICATION
Number 501 – Cover dated 7th November 1935
The original first edition
WHAT WAS IT LIKE?
This publication ran to 100 pages if you count the
front cover as page 1 and the back page as page 100
Although it was actually numbered from the inner first
page to the inner last page as pages 1 to 96
(The cover was referred to as pages i, ii, iii and iv)
I obtained my Boy’s Friend Library version of Biggles
in France on Friday 21st June 2013,
which, coincidently,
was also the 45th anniversary of the death of W.E. Johns on Friday
21st June 1968.
As so few people have actually seen a copy of this, I
have put some photos up to show what it was really like.
It so happens that the cover of mine has become
detached – but then it is 78 years old and was
never
designed to last this long. This fault
has the advantage of making it nice and easy to scan!
Luckily, the spine (although it has some tape on)
still largely remains intact when you put the cover back on the book
The inner covers looked like this. Unfortunately mine has a bee sticker stuck on
it!
Here is a picture of what it would look like if there
was no sticker(!)
The first internal page contained the only
illustration for the entire Biggles story
The story “Biggles in France” actually ends on page
92. Here are the adverts that appear on
Pages 92 and 93
And here are Pages 94 and 95.
There are some interesting comments about Biggles and
“Flying-Officer” W. E. Johns
Note the “Notice to ‘Biggles’ fans” at the bottom of
Page 95
On Page 96 there is an article called “Two Knights of
the Air” that continues onto the back cover.
The back cover can be seen at the very top of this
page.