THE BOY BIGGLES

First Printed March 1968

by Captain W. E. Johns

This was the last Biggles book published in Johns’ life time as he died in June 1968

NB - IN THIS BOOK BIGGLES IS REFERRED TO AS “JAMES” BUT FOR THE SAKE OF THE STORY SUMMARIES; I HAVE REFERRED TO HIM AS BIGGLES.

CONTENTS

A WORD IN ADVANCE (Pages 7 - 10)

"Most healthy boys have an inborn appetite for adventure. If it does not come to them they will go out to look for it”. Johns then goes on to talk about danger and risk. “But during the British occupation of India it was an unseen menace which took the greatest toll of human life. Disease. It was fever that filled the churchyards with the white population, particularly the young. It nearly killed Biggles, and probably would have done had he not been sent to the cooler climate of England to give his blood a chance to thicken. It might be going too far to say that his successful career as a combat pilot was the result of his boyhood adventures; but that the life he led, with danger never far away, contributed, is not to be doubted. In order to survive he had to learn to use his head, think and act swiftly in a situation where a mistake, or a moment of carelessness, could prove fatal”. “The regular readers of the Biggles books may sometimes have wondered what Biggles was like when he was a boy in India, before he ever saw England. The following pages may provide the answer, or at least help the reader to form an opinion”.