Biggles Defends The Desert by W.E. Johns
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Biggles Defends The Desert is the story of a shindig in the desert. We go attack them, they attack us, people are trapped, people are rescued, Biggles has his head basically blown off but then recovers in spectacularly swift fashion, and there is never any doubt as to what the ending might be. But then, I suspect, that might be the way things roll in these books. It certainly is the way that things roll in the (outlandish, ridiculous, fabulous) Worralls books which was my route into them.
It was all a lot more Blytonian than I expected: Johns starts writing and then he does not stop and all you have to do as a reader is keep up. It is also very much of its time, and reminded me a lot of the Powell and Pressburger Colonel Blimp film and also a lot of the propaganda films I’ve come across from that period. It also feels like one of the last hurrahs for the boysown-let’s-go-turn-the-world-red-rah-rah-empire quality that so dominated the turn of the century. It didn’t surprise me when I had a look at Johns’ biography to discover that he was born in 1893 and that he worked as well on magazines. There’s a very strong serial vibe to them.
Did I like it? I’m not sure. I didn’t find it quite as diverting as the Worrals books but I’d certainly pick up another one if I came across it.
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Daisy May Johnson 
Interesting. Despite being male I was never into Biggles books growing up – as one born after the last war probably too jingoistic for my taste.
Still, I also recently picked up a secondhand reissued Biggles title from Red Fox, this time 1936’s Biggles and Co, and from the blurb it sounds like Indiana Jones without the hocus-pocus. I hope to give it a go soon (though maybe after Yellowface!).
I did think that the Red Fox ones were actually very nicely put together (the one I read had a nice foreword and some well done glossary stuff) and if I were to pick one up, it would hopefully be one of them. I’ll keep an eye for your thoughts on this one – and of course, for Yellowface!