BIGGLES DOES SOME HOMEWORK
Book First Published by NORMAN WRIGHT as a limited edition
in PAPERBACK of only 300 numbered copies in February 1998 - 170 pages
Book was then Re-Published by NORMAN WRIGHT as a limited
edition in HARDBACK of only 300 numbered copies in June 2007 - 140 pages
(For both the paperback and the hardback
there appear to be around 25 additional complimentary and review copies, which
are unnumbered and just marked “comp”)
This Biggles book was never serialised elsewhere.
The cover of the original paperback first edition
Captain W. E. Johns died whilst writing
Chapter 12 of this book and his estate did not initially want the unfinished
book published. It wasn’t until some
thirty years after his death that they were finally persuaded to do so.
As the book is hard to find, I have done
the story summary on a chapter by chapter basis, so that all Biggles fans can
get a good idea of what this last story was all about and enjoy it.
The Chapters can be summarised as follows:-
CHAPTER ONE - A HEART TO HEART
Biggles is called in to see Air
Commodore Raymond who reminds him that they are both getting old and the day is
not far distant when both he and Biggles will be due to retire. Due to its
success, Raymond wants to expand the Special Air Section of the Police and buy
new planes. The time has also come for them to have their own Aerodrome to use.
Who will replace Biggles when he retires? Raymond has been looking for possible
new recruits to the Air Police and wants Biggles to try out some new people to
see what he thinks. To this end, Raymond has made arrangements for a suitable
RAF Officer, nearing the end of his commission, to attend for interview. At the
end of the day, the recruitment decision will, of course, be for Biggles.
CHAPTER TWO - ALEXANDER GORDON MacKAY
Biggles, Algy, Bertie and Ginger
meet Alexander Gordon MacKay, the son of V.C. holder, General Alexander MacKay.
MacKay (junior) is dark skinned and he explains that he has Native American or
"Red Indian" blood in him. The team get to know and like MacKay and
find out that his nickname is "Minnie" - short for Minnehaha (from
Longfellow's poem 'The Song of Hiawatha'), because of his native
American ancestry. Minnie joins the team for a probationary period.
CHAPTER THREE - A STRANGE TALE OF A BAG
Air Commodore Raymond asks
Biggles to investigate the mystery of an army kit bag that has been found in
the middle of remote countryside. The kit bag was packed with registered post
office mail stolen from a Post Office van where the driver had been coshed and
was now seriously ill in hospital. Biggles takes Algy, Bertie, Ginger and
Minnie down to investigate the location where the bag was found.
CHAPTER FOUR - RURAL REFLECTIONS
Biggles and the team meet with
local Police Constable Murphy who shows them where the bag was found and then
leaves. The bag was found in a small clump of trees known as a spinney. Minnie
is the first to raise the possibility that the bag has fallen or been dropped
out of an aeroplane. Climbing the tree under which it was found, Minnie finds
evidence that this was the case. From the tree, Minnie sees a stranger coming
and he arrives soon after a man in a RAF tie.
CHAPTER FIVE
The man in the RAF tie is looking
for the army kit bag. Biggles says that it has been found but it is empty. The
man leaves and Minnie is sent to follow him. The man returns to his car by the
road where two men are nearby waiting in a London taxi. One of these waiting
men shoots the man in the RAF tie. Minnie runs back to report to Biggles. Biggles
suspects that the new men on the scene will be with them very shortly and sets
Ginger and Minnie to watch for their approach.
CHAPTER SIX
Minnie returns to the spinney to
say the men are on their way and Ginger has gone off to get the number of their
car. Two nasty villains arrive and there is a confrontation between them and
Biggles' party. They want the kit bag and the contents, the registered mail.
The confrontation looks like ending in violence when one of the villains pulls
a gun on Biggles, but this confrontation is ended by the return of the Police
Constable. The two villains leave. After some time, Ginger returns to say that
(with the help of a passing motorcyclist), he followed the two villains to Lotton Hall, a nearby large house set in huge grounds.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Biggles asks the Police Constable
who lives at Lotton Hall. He is told it is a Mr.
Nestor Zolton, from Cyprus, who is believed to have
made a fortune from shady gambling joints in London. He walks with a stick and
for this reason tends to travel in a large London taxi. Everybody returns to
London and Biggles goes to brief the Air Commodore as to the result of his
enquiries so far and finds that he is now dealing with a murder. The injured
Post Office driver has now died. Biggles makes his plans and returns to his
office to brief everybody on the next line of enquiry.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Bertie is sent to keep watch on
the spinney of trees where the bag was originally found. On the way, he drops
Ginger and Minnie off at Lotton Hall to keep watch
there. Biggles' theory is that the army kit bag was dropped due to a problem
with the aircraft so Algy is sent to make enquiries with all aerodromes within
a 50-mile radius of Lotton Hall as to any planes
making any emergency landings. Bertie climbs a tree in the spinney to keep
watch and soon sees four men approaching. These are the two villains, plus the
man with the RAF tie, now bandaged, and a fourth man who Bertie thinks must be
Zoltan. They are obviously trying to force the bandaged man to tell them where
the contents of the kit bag are. Unfortunately, the tree Bertie is in breaks
(and this is the picture on the cover of the book - together with pictures of
(presumably) Biggles and Air Commodore Raymond). The bandaged man in the RAF
tie takes the opportunity to run for it, leaving Bertie to face the wrath of
the three remaining men.
CHAPTER NINE
Meanwhile, Ginger and Minnie see
a car leave Lotton Hall. They don't know who is in it
but later meet with Police Constable Murphy who is able to tell them it was
Doctor Grey who was in the car. Apparently, the Doctor had been called out to
see a man with a minor gunshot wound. Seeing four men walking in the direction
of the spinney where Bertie is keeping watch, Ginger follows them, whilst
Minnie goes to investigate the now supposedly deserted Lotton
Hall.
CHAPTER TEN
Ginger hears Bertie fall out of
the tree and soon meets the fleeing bandaged man. Stopping him, Ginger finds out
his name is Varley. Varley agrees to tell Ginger all he knows about what is
going on, in return for safe passage away from the area. Ginger is told that
there are two rival drug gangs and they are at war with each other. Zoltan, who
is a Greek Cypriot, leads one gang and a man named Alfondari,
who is a Turkish Cypriot, leads the other. Both gangs deal heroin. The
registered mail was stolen because it contains a package of heroin. Zolton usually picks it up at a Hotel but now needs to
intercept it because he has been tipped off that the rival gang now know about
this. Ginger takes Varley back to the main road where they meet up with Biggles
who had said he would come down to join them. Biggles is told of the new
information and decides to take Varley with him back to London. This is
Biggles' last appearance in the story and his final line is "I'll drop you
off as near as I can get to the spinney". This is said to Ginger who is
sent to make sure Bertie is alright and to tell the gang what has happened to
the missing mail.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Bertie is being offered £100 by
Zoltan to tell the gang where the contents of the army kit bag are. He declines
to do so. Ginger arrives and, following his orders is quite happy to tell the
gang what has happened to the contents of the army kit bag. The registered mail
has been returned to the Post Office, who have gone on to deliver it in the
normal course of post. The gang leave Ginger and Bertie, presumably to return
to Lotton Hall.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Ginger and Bertie go to look for
Minnie who was supposed to be at Lotton Hall. Finding
no sign of him, they venture closer and hear the dogs at the Hall making a
commotion. They find that half a dozen Alsatian dogs are holding Minnie at bay.
He has climbed up into a hayloft to get away from the dogs. One of the villains
appears on the scene with a rifle. Ginger asks Bertie to go and contact Biggles
to say they need help whilst Ginger stays to try and delay things. "With
considerable reluctance Bertie backed away from ......"
It was on the 21st June 1968 at 8.30 a.m. that William Earl
Johns (born 5th February 1893) stopped mid-sentence in order to make himself
and his wife a cup of tea. He went upstairs to her and sat in his armchair and
suffered a fatal heart attack and died immediately. He was 75 years old. So
ended the saga of Biggles, first published in 1932 and last published in 1997.
It is appropriate that Johns' final Biggles story should be published some 65
years after his first. Sixty-five is, of course, the normal retirement age for
men and this was a story in which Biggles was facing retirement from the
Special Air Police and recruiting fresh new blood to take his place.
BEWARE THE FAKES! – CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS!
With the exception of the frontispiece, there are no story
illustrations in this book.
Biggles Does Some Homework
Subtitle - The Final, Unfinished Novel
Publication Details - published privately by Norman Wright in a
limited edition of only 300 books.
Frontispiece
Click on the above to see it in more detail
The original cover artwork – which used to be in my own personal
collection