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| Biggles, Pioneer Air Fighter Image from bigglesbooks.com |
Biggles needs no time to think it over: “I’ll
go on leave if you’ll cancel the posting. It would kill me to hang about an
F.T.S.” He has only one request, however. He wants to fly back to England in
his Camel, a condition that Mullen is at first reluctant about, but finally
gives into.
Having got back to England, Biggles finds
himself at a loose end. His father and brother (Johns informs us, “his only
living relatives”. What? What d’you mean, only living relatives? What about Algy?
What about Dickpa? What about the Brigadier-General uncle?) are both away, and
the family house is closed up. (Surely they would have servants of some type to
look after the house? Biggles is, after all, somewhat well off.)
Thankfully, he meets a family friend,
Harboard, who invites him to run down to Kent for a few days, a proposal that
Biggles, who by now is thoroughly bored of doing nothing, readily agrees to.
Once there, he runs into a “shooting party” who are also spending the weekend at
Harboard’s place. At the head of the group is a man named Frazer, who is
described as a “big, florid, middle-aged man to whom Biggles had taken an
instant dislike to…his loud, overbearing manner…irritated [Biggles’] frayed
nerves”. Further insult is added to injury when Frazer, a man who for various
reasons cannot fight in the war all but outright accuses Biggles of cowardice.
By now the only thing I feel like doing is
giving Frazer a good punch in the face. (I’m sure Biggles felt the same.) And
just at that moment the ‘phone rings with the news that two German seaplanes
are bombing Ramsgate. Biggles, never one to sit still at the best of times,
goes off to do what he does best….and that makes for some fun reading!
But the best part of this story is at the
very end, when the shooting party gets the news of Biggles’ deeds and Frazer
blurts out, “He’s not the
Bigglesworth—the fellow we read about in the papers—is he?” (Of course he is,
you idiot. How many people named Bigglesworth do you think there are in the
world?)
How satisfying to see the horrid boaster
end up with egg on his face. All is right with the world again!
I also dislike the mean girl in this story who gave Biggles a white feather (for cowardice!) Poor Biggles - first her, then Marie's betrayal - no wonder he gave girls a wide birth for so long after that - neither encounter could be described as positive!(sobs!)
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's such a petty thing to do. I also find it puzzling that these rich people who are basically enjoying the war, are so eager to make fun of someone else who they think is also enjoying the war.
ReplyDeletePeraps because Biggles refused to go out and be 'one of the group' with them - he would never have shot birds for sport I am sure, even if he had liked their company, which he obvoously didn't.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I get the impression that they are older - after all they are paying for their shooting 'entertainment' whereas Biggles was still only a teenager - maybe only 17 or 18.
One thing in that story that has always jarred with me: the British Higher Command didn't favour the German practice of identifying and glorifying air aces. So would Biggles' achievements really have been in the papers so much?
I agree--I don't see Biggles as the hunting type, unlike Bertie, who is the huntin' and fishin' kind.
ReplyDeleteI believe there are several instances when Biggles is mentioned as being in the papers, Ginger for example knew Biggles from the papers, in Rescue Flight Biggles finds out about Thirty and Rip running away from school in a paper that describes a raid he took part in. Biggles must have done so much that the papers had to report it :)