HOW DO
WE KNOW WHEN BIGGLES OF THE SPECIAL AIR POLICE WAS PUBLISHED?
If you look at the first few pages of any Thames Biggles book,
whether it’s a REGENT CLASSICS edition or a KINGSTON LIBRARY EDITION, you will
find no obvious printing date inside.
Normally there is what is called a “colophon” in a book, a
brief statement containing information about the publication of a book, such as
the publisher, the place of publication and the date of publication.
In Biggles of the Special Air Police (and other Thames
books) it looks like the page on the left.
It says printed by Purnell and Sons but doesn’t give any date of
publication
But the Thames
books DO contain a date! It’s just
difficult to see because it is UNDER the front pastedown page inside the
cover. In other words, open the cover of the book
and the very first blank page you see behind the cover contains the date.
How can you see
this without ripping up the book?
Well, you need
something called “IPA” – “Isopropyl Alcohol Isopropanol”, sometimes referred to
as “rubbing alcohol”.
You can spray this
on the page and it will soak in and reveal the date. If you then leave it, it quickly evaporates
and leaves
the book unharmed
and without any odour* (* Disclaimer –
You do this at your own risk! But it
worked for me).
I asked myself, how would I even know which book was the
earliest edition of BIGGLES OF THE SPECIAL AIR POLICE
And the answer to that is to use the original A P Watt file
copy of that book! (A.P. Watt were the
literary agents for W. E. Johns).
Which it so happens, I have. So, the opening page of that book looks like
this. This is the inside front cover of
their file copy.
You can see the file copy stamps inside. Below is an enlargement of the stamps.
There
are two stamps in this copy.
At the top is (Madam) Marguerite Scialtiel’s stamp.
She was the French agent for W. E. Johns books in France.
Her stamp is in this book as A. P. Watt sent this first
edition to her
to arrange the translation into French.
The second stamp is from
A.P.
Watt & Son,
Hastings
House,
Norfolk
Street,
Strand,
London.
W.C.2
“to
whom please address all communications about the MS which bears this stamp”
Note the reference number J.28. Why J28?
Well, J must be “Johns” and 28, the 28th Johns book in the A.
P. Watt files. Does that work out?
By September 1953, Johns had been with A. P Watt since
around 1939/40. We know that because of
this letter.
A.P. Watt approached Johns in September 1939. He had previously had no literary
agents. Johns took up the offer and
joined them.
A.P. Watt did a deal with the publishers Hodder &
Stoughton, for them to publish the Biggles books because they paid a royalty on
each book sold, whereas Oxford Publishing Ltd didn’t. Oxford Publishing Ltd had just paid Johns
£250.00 outright, for all rights to his Biggles books, except the serialisation
rights in various boy’s magazines which Johns retained. Hodder & Stoughton paid royalties. It would appear that Hodder & Stoughton
must have tested the water firstly with reprints of the Oxford book “Biggles
Flies East”. Firstly, in May 1942, with
another edition in September 1942. (The
second edition is both smaller in size and thinner). The first edition must have been successful
to be reprinted and sales must have led to the first actual Hodder &
Stoughton “Biggles” book being published in September 1942 – “Biggles Sweeps
the Desert”.
By 1953, Johns had had published 18 Biggles books and 9
Gimlet books while with A P Watt. That’s
27 books. So, Biggles of the Special
Air Police was their 28th book.
Hence, I believe, the stamp J.28!
For the sake of clarity, Johns 18 Hodder & Stoughton
Biggles books to 1953 were
1942 BIGGLES SWEEPS THE DESERT
1943 BIGGLES FAILS TO RETURN
1945 BIGGLES IN THE ORIENT
1946 BIGGLES DELIVERS THE GOODS
1947 SERGEANT BIGGLESWORTH C.I.D.
1947 COMRADES IN ARMS
1948 BIGGLES’ SECOND CASE
1948 BIGGLES HUNTS BIG GAME
1949 BIGGLES TAKES A HOLIDAY
1949 BIGGLES BREAKS THE SILENCE
1950 BIGGLES GETS HIS MEN
1951 ANOTHER JOB FOR BIGGLES
1951 BIGGLES GOES TO SCHOOL
1951 BIGGLES WORKS IT OUT
1952 BIGGLES TAKES THE CASE
1952 BIGGLES FOLLOWS ON
1952 BIGGLES AND THE BLACK RAIDER
1953 BIGGLES IN THE BLUE (A ‘Brock’ book but a division
of Hodder & Stoughton)
Johns 9 Gimlet books to 1953 were
1943 KING OF THE COMMANDOS
1944 GIMLET GOES AGAIN
1946 GIMLET COMES HOME
1947 GIMLET MOPS UP
1948 GIMLET’S ORIENTAL QUEST
1949 GIMLET LENDS A HAND
1950 GIMLET BORES IN
1951 GIMLET OFF THE MAP
1952 GIMLET GETS THE ANSWER
So – back to the spraying the “IPA” (Isopropyl Alcohol
Isopropanol) on the inside of the front cover.
You get this:-
Under the damp patch you can clearly see something
typed! What does it say? Well, it is in “mirror writing” because it is
printed on the other side of that page, i.e. the page actually stuck to the
back of the front cover. I photographed
it then used computer software to “reverse” the picture to get a mirror image
so I could read what it said.
And there we have it!
“BIGGLES OF THE SPECIAL AIR POLICE – THE THAMES PUBLISHING CO Regent Classics Printed Sept. 1953
Of course, you can do this with any edition of the Thames
books. Here is one from a Kingston
Library edition dated Nov. 1954.
If you want to know how many versions of BIGGLES OF THE
SPECIAL AIR POLICE, there are then I can only recommend James Stacey’s
excellent website BIGGLES ONLINE …….
Using the brilliant research of IAN NOUWENS ………… both e-mail friends of mine.
http://www.biggles-online.com/book/biggles-of-the-special-air-police/editions/
Ian Nouwens has concluded there are TWELVE different
versions of the Thames Publishing versions of BIGGLES OF THE SPECIAL AIR
POLICE. Four are REGENT CLASSIC
versions and eight are KINGSTON LIBRARY versions. Basically, there are ones with blue and red
boards and ones with and without a colour frontispiece. Check out the excellent web site for full
details of this book (and many others).
The list of books inside all four versions of the REGENT
CLASSIC edition of BIGGLES OF THE SPECIAL AIR POLICE are:-
In a nutshell, all four Regent Classics versions of “Biggles
of the Special Air Police” appear to be dated “September 1953” when the date is
revealed. Which is the first? Are they ALL firsts? Or were different versions reprinted using
the same plates?
Biggles Online has listed the one that matches my file copy
as the first one and I think that must be right.
With regard to the four Regent versions:-
Two have blue boards and two have red boards. There is only one, a red version, with the
colour frontispiece. The other three
versions don’t have it. The difference
between the two blue board versions is that one has GILT titles to the spine
and front cover and one has BLACK titles to the spine and front cover. The difference between the two red board versions
is that one has GILT titles to the spine and front cover and one has BLACK
titles to the spine and front cover but the red version with the gilt titles
appears to be the only version which has the colour frontispiece. I have been looking for a blue board Regent
version with GILT titles to the spine and the front cover and with a
frontispiece AND the date inside is revealed as September 1953 but I have not
found one so far. If you have one –
please let me know!
With regard to the eight Kingston Library versions of “Biggles
of the Special Air Police”. All titles
are ONLY on the spine, not the cover.
One is dated November 1954 (blue boards, gilt titles and
colour frontispiece)
Two are dated November 1955 (red boards, gilt titles and
colour frontispiece and blue boards, black titles and colour frontispiece)
One is dated September 1956 (red boards, black titles, no
frontispiece)
Two are dated November 1957 (red boards, black titles, no
frontispiece and blue boards, black titles and no frontispiece)
One is dated November 1958 (red boards, black titles, no
frontispiece) and finally
One is dated December 1959 (red boards, black titles, no
frontispiece).