Biggles Flies East Review

Having read through Biggles Flies East and got all the good Algy bits out of it for the quote box (the quote box is having the unexpected effect of making me read through all the books with Algy in it; not sure if this is good or bad), I have to admit that I am surprised by how much my perspective of this book has changed during the course of this reading.

The last time I read Biggles Flies East might have been a couple of years ago (if not longer). It’s never been one of my favorite books, as it is quite Biggles-centric, and any Soppy favorite must be at least partially (read: all) centered on Algy at best. I’ve never really been that big a fan of dear old Erich, either, which might have had something to do with it. Also—and this may just be me—I’ve never thought that Johns was that good of a mystery writer (I present Biggles in the Orient and all the air police books as evidence of this), and this may have slightly spoiled my enjoyment of the book.

In any case, having said all that, during this reading of Flies East, I found myself realizing that this is one of only two full-length WWI novels (the other being Rescue Flight, which was rather more Thirty-oriented than Biggles- or Algy-oriented, although it does have some nice Algy moments, but we’ll get to those when I’m getting the quotes out of that book) where it’s just Biggles and Algy. And, no, not just Biggles and Algy, more importantly, young Biggles and Algy.

Why is this significant? Because in the later air police books, even though there are Biggles and Algy only books, they feature older Biggles and Algy, and even though there’s nothing wrong with them, young Biggles and Algy are just cooler. (Seriously, they just are.)

In fact, I would even go so far as to say that Biggles Flies East is the truest example of Biggles and Algy’s friendship out of all the Biggles books, with both of them being young and ready to do anything for their country and for each other, and each worrying about the others’ welfare, and knowing that at any second either one of them could be dead—note how, in the second chapter, when Algy is told that there is bad news, he immediately says, “Don’t tell me Biggles has crashed.” Similarly, Biggles is horrified when he thinks that his gunner has shot Algy down, and immediately blames himself for getting Algy posted out from France. There are also several instances where Algy gets angry on Biggles’ behalf—first, when he thinks that Biggles has been posted to H.E. because the Air Board has gone mad, and then later, when he thinks to himself that the people at the Air Board should be boiled in oil for sending Biggles out on such a dangerous mission.

These are all emotional moments that never really happened in any of the other books, because none of the other books were just young Biggles and Algy (this is all your fault, Ginger!) under really dire circumstances; even the WWI short stories were very light-hearted despite the grim situations conveyed, sometimes too light-hearted to carry the depth of emotion that Flies East does.

I don’t think that the lack of emotion in the later books was because the feelings or the caring were no longer there, but rather because that level of intense emotion was too difficult for a children’s book—child readers probably would have been unable to get it, and Flies East, I believe, was supposed to be marketed as an adult book.

In a way it’s a real pity that Johns didn’t write more WWI Biggles and Algy novels. It would have been nice to explore that level of friendship further.