Spitfire
Parade opens with three Spitfires landing at 666
and three pilots getting out and walking towards the squadron office.
As always, Biggles is in the lead:
“His step was light and his figure slim, almost boyish, but his bearing was that of a man of experience. His deep-set hazel eyes were never still and held a curious glint, a sort of speculative fire, that seemed to be in keeping with a pale, clean-shaven face upon which the strain of war had graven little lines. His hands, as small and delicate as those of a girl, were nearly lost in the fur of the gloves they carried.”
--Spitfire Parade
Strangely, it isn’t that different from the
description of his seventeen year old self. He’s still slim and has hands like
a girl’s, and his boyish figure suggests the same delicateness he had in WWI,
although he must have grown a bit because he’s no longer below average height. I’m
glad to see that his eyes remain the same color (hazel), and that he’s clean-shaven
(Biggles with a mustache? Never!). At this point Biggles of course was in his
forties, so no surprise that he bears himself as a “man of experience”.
We later learn that he is “Squadron
Leader James Bigglesworth, D.S.O., D.F.C., better known in flying circles as ‘Biggles’.”
Behind Biggles, is, of course, Algy:
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| Excerpt from the graphic novel Spitfire Parade Image from blogs.birminghammail.co.uk/ |
“…of similar age and build, but his manner was nonchalant, and his expression one of slightly bored humor.”
--Spitfire Parade
Hmm. No mention of the freckles or “permanent
expression of amused surprise” here. Thankfully Johns has decided to make Algy similar
in build to Biggles rather than stockier (grrrrr) this time around.
Full title? “Flight Lieutenant the
Honorable Algernon Lacey, D.F.C.”. Try saying that five times fast! It must
have looked magnificent posted up on the noticeboards.
And lastly, Ginger, who annoyingly has a
much longer description that Algy:
“…mere lad, with curious inquiring eyes; but his air was alert, and he carried himself in a way that suggested a degree of self-confidence hardly to be expected in one so young. A wisp or two of ginger hair escaped under the rim of the flying cap which he had just loosened.”
--Spitfire Parade
A “mere lad”? Ginger must have been in his
mid-twenties in Spitfire Parade! How old does one have to be to stop being a “mere
lad”? I feel as though Johns has got sixteen year old Ginger stuck in his head,
except yet again the freckles appear to have vanished with age. As for the
self-confidence, well, Ginger always had that in spades, even before he met
Biggles, so it’s hardly surprising that he seems to have gotten more of it!
I've just finished reading Spitfire Parade (again) and my thoughts about Ginger are the same as yours. I make him 22 at least! Biggles hands are still small, of course, he's still slim, but boyish? Did you know he also has small feet? That was mentioned in Noble Lord. No wonder Biggles isn't for fist-fighting!As for Algy's short description, I think this doesn't detract from Algy at all, he listed all the important points!
ReplyDeleteSmall feet? What? Although now you mention it, it would be odd if he had small hands and huge feet, wouldn't it? I'm surprised anyone loses to Biggles in a fight! I agree he sounds like he's not one for fighting.
ReplyDeleteWell you have to remember what EVS said: brains, not brawn.
ReplyDeleteMy sort of hero...
Ginger appears to have remained (in WEJ's eyes) a 'mere lad' right through to the end of the books (by which time Ginger must have been well into his forties).
ReplyDeleteSo no chance for proper character development, unlike Biggles and Algy who WEJ allowed to age gracefully, from WWI onwards, and who thus came across as real people.
I make Ginger about 20 or 21 in Spitfire Parade. Doesn't sound so much, until it is contrasted with Biggles, who was still 18 at the time of Flies East.
ReplyDeleteWEJ was re-using material from earlier books, as we know. I wonder if it was because it was under 10 years since he wrote that description of Biggles that he didn't bother to change it?
I think the "mere lad-ness' is what made WEJ think it was okay to make Ginger lose himself and get into so much trouble in the air police books. When you realize (like really realize) that he must have been in his thirties and doing those things it is a little strange.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Ginger just lacked any sense of direction at all - at any age!
ReplyDeleteThat would explain the confusion about where Ginger actually came from in 'Black Peril.' My theory is that he DID come from Yorkshire as he once stated, he WAS heading to London like he said and he DID meet Biggles in Northumberland 10 miles out of Newcastle.Only thing is when he set out from Smettleworth for London, because of his innate ability for getting lost anywhere, he started heading NORTH instead of south.
Good thing he met Biggles when he did or the silly boy might have ended up in the Outer Hebrides before he realised his mistake!
At the beginning of WWII Johns was under pressure to write stories and books that would encourage men to join the RAF. That may account for keeping Ginger young, because, unfortunately for them, young men were exactly what the Forces wanted. he probably hoped that young men would identify with Ginger. Being under pressure would also account for WEJ's recycling of some WWI stories. really annoying for us, but perfectly understandable in the confusing opening months of WWII.
ReplyDeleteExcept the recycled short stories (Spitfire Parade) were not done in the opening months of WWII. Spitfire Parade was printed in August 1941. And we know WEJ wrote fast - and he probably recycled very fast.
ReplyDeleteWEJ was out of date and didn't really know what war flying was like in WWII. He may have been asked to write Spitfire Parade, and maybe he recycled the WWI stories hoping they'd do - but they don't. They don't have the same vibrancy .
The rest of the WWII books were all set outside Britain and were really more about adventures than war flying.
He didn't really need to know much about the reality of current war flying to write books like Fails to Return, In Borneo, Delivers the Goods, Sweeps the Desert and In The Orient. They were good adventure stories set against a background of war and flying, but not needing the detail of what it was really like to fly a spitfire.
I take your point about the time Spitfire Parade was written, SA. Missed that. Thanks
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that Johns was also asked to create an army and a female character, hence Gimlet and Worrals. The powers that be really realised how influential Johns was. So apart from the Biggles WW2 stories he's also churning out the Gimlet and Worrals ones - from 1940-45 he put out a remarkable number of books.
ReplyDeleteSopwith mentioned that it was a bit strange that Ginger was still getting lost in the Air Police stories when he was in his thirties.
ReplyDeleteI would like to point out that in his late thirties Algy was
a) getting lost (see Hits the Trail and Air Commodore)
b) Poking sleeping vampire bats with a stick!
I hadn't forgotten about Gimlet and Worrals - I haven't read any Worrals but I was kindly given a lot of Gimlet books and I enjoyed those set in the war in France. The first Gimlet book came out quite late in the War (late 1943). I think the Worrals ones were a bit earlier, but I don't have any.
ReplyDeleteI wnder how influential they were... I had always imagined that it was the WWI Biggles books that had most influence. To capture the imagination, stories need to be good. Am I just prejudiced (highly probable) or were the Biggles books several levels higher than the Gimlet and Worrals books?
WEJ did turn books, magazine articles, etc. out at a tremendous speed. No wonder he never spent time checking back to see if he was being consistent in his description and time-lines.
I love JJ's idea that Ginger thought he was he was heading south to London from Yorkshire but in reality was heading north!
ReplyDeleteHow many other 'misfits' in the books can you fix that way? How did Biggles' eyes change from hazel to grey then back to hazel - had soemone lent him a very early pair of tinted contact lenses as a disguise?
I agree with JJ--it wouldn't surprise me at all if Ginger tried walking to London and ended up in France ("The people in London speak a funny language...").
ReplyDeleteAs for Algy and poking vampire bats with a stick, I've never been able to understand why he did that. Algy is not always sensible but he does have a lot of common sense (enough not to poke bats with a stick, at any rate). My personal theory is that he was on whatever I was on when I wrote Biggles Married. Whatever that stuff is, it's potent!
I haven't read any Gimlet or Worrals, but I have read one of the space books and I didn't find it quite as good as Biggles, so I would think that Biggles books were the ones closest to Johns' heart.
I'm working my way through the Worrals and Gimlet books in order and am about halfway through both. I think they're both fine, although you could easily substitute Biggles and his gang for Gimlet and his, particularly with the young 'Cub' being an obvious alternative for Ginger. In fact, in the last couple I've read, Gimlet has barely appeared - it's mainly been Cub.
ReplyDeleteI've read all of the space books - they start out ok but end up very formulaic and increasingly implausible.
Don't you find the Gimlet characters physically more violent than Biggles & Co?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Cub - an earth-bound Ginger, with possibly less of a tendency to get lost...
I haven't read any of the Gimlet books but my understanding is that he is a commando and it's no good being one of those if you're not prepared to do what needs to be done. Certainly he would need a harder edge than Biggles had. Can't comment really on anything beyond that but will try and read Gimlet if for no other reason than I'll know what people are talking about.
ReplyDeleteGimlet and his team appear in one or two of the Biggles books, I think. I got the impression that they were not as close-knit as Biggles and his team were (couldn't say why; maybe I'm just biased).
ReplyDeleteDid Biggles ever appear in the Worrals books? I know Raymond was in them.
I have always harboured serious doubts about that whole Algy and the vampire bats incident - very out of character...
ReplyDeleteNow I don't want to cast any nasturtiums at Ginger's integrity but as it was actually him recounting the story (and it does sound much more like something Ginger himself might do)do you think it's possible he might have - er- cough* cough* - sorry Ginger- substituted Algy's name for his own?
After all, we do know Ginger wasn't above telling a whopper or two when circumstances demanded it - just look how pat he was at deceiving some of the villains in 'Black Peril'.
Biggles appeared in at least three of the Gimlet books and each time, WEJ makes him appear cool, calm and clever... Biggles = WEJ's real hero :-)
ReplyDeleteJJ, I think you could be right: that it was really Ginger who poked the vampire bats :-)))))
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I like about Ginger is that he's willing to poke fun at himself. You see it elsewhere in Charter Pilot, so I doubt he'd try and blame Algy for his misdeeds. Besides Algy was sitting there listening!
ReplyDeleteOf course it's possible that Biggles was the one with the stick and they didn't want him to look bad in front of the squadron!
I was just thinking that it might have been Biggles! I don't know though; the three of them all seem sensible enough not to do something so utterly stupid. What did they think would happen when they poked the bats? It feels to me like a poor attempt on WEJ's part to make trouble for Biggles and the others.
ReplyDeleteGimlet is meant to be more violent than Biggles, and Johns states this in the 'A Man You Should Know' letter that appears on the back of some Biggles dustjackests and was also included as a flyer in some books:
ReplyDelete'A word of warning. His methods are not always as gentlemanly as Biggles'. When things get rough he's apt to get tough. Which is why, of course, he was given a bunch of wildcats to command. After all, kid gloves are as about as useful to a commando on his job as roller skates would be to a steeplejack'.
The Gimlet series was aimed at older boys, so more violence was deemed acceptable.
Biggles never appeared in any of the Worrals books - a shame, I think!
In the post-war books the Gimlet team have gone their separate ways and only reassemble for each adventure, so they're not as close-knit in that respect.
It would have been interesting to see what Biggles and Worrals made of each other!
ReplyDeleteI read one Worrals book and went straight back to Biggles. i suspect that perhaps WEJ might have been a little out of his element when writing about females, particularly as serving females in wartime was a completely new concept. But, like I said about the Gimlet books, will probably read them now so I know what you're all talking about
ReplyDeleteThe Worrals books are even harder to get hold of than the Biggles books, aren't they? I'd really like to read one just to see what it's like. Maybe I'll check on abebooks or ebay or somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWorrals books are pretty common, you shouldn't have much trouble picking them up. Although now I come to think of it, I don't know that I've seen any in paperback. Most of the hardbacks aren't too pricey, though.
ReplyDeleteI bet Johns was too scared to make Worrals and Biggles meet 'cos everybody would expect them to hook up!
The Worrals books actually got a fairly good reception - people were impressed with the way Johns didn't make her a weak little 'girly' type but instead a brave, resourceful woman well able to look after herself. In that respect they were reasonably ground-breaking for the time.
If Worrals and Biggles had got together she would have had to betray him and break his heart in due course.
ReplyDeleteI may be wrong, but I believe that Johns was quite good friends with Amy Johnson, and that he actually based Worrals on her.
Looking at ebay Australia, it struck me that Worrals books are cheaper on ebay UK, although it may have been chance because it depends what is on sale at any time. Might be worth the extra postage and worth checking out the UK from time to time.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Interesting. Although the postage rates for either country to send to me is pretty high, so :(
ReplyDeleteI always check listings set to 'Worldwide', not just 'Australia Only'. Otherwise an awful lot is missed. I just accept that the postage is going to be a factor and buy/bid accordingly.
ReplyDeleteNowadays you have to factor in PayPal charges as well. I think they raised them over the last year.
ReplyDeleteAs a buyer Paypal only gets you on overseas transactions through their rip-off exchange rate, which is usually 2 or 3 cents less than the proper one.
ReplyDeleteI think they also have some sort of percentage transaction fee, although it keeps changing so I'm not very sure what it is now. I just know that when I send money it's a good idea to send a bit extra as some of it is going to vanish.
ReplyDeleteWow, this seems so helpful!
ReplyDelete