We have to remember that Biggles and Marie are not the only great romance of the Biggles series. Another, almost as famous couple, are Ginger and Jeanette.
It is Jeanette who nurses Ginger back to health, and it is also Jeanette that Ginger goes on and on about for the latter half of the book Fails to Return. Algy is inclined to be good-naturedly amused by the whole thing, but Bertie is somewhat annoyed. "Is this a romance or a rescue?" he demands of Ginger. And later, "I don't hold with all these women in the party," he declares, before sharing a story of a fellow pilot who walked into an airscrew because he was looking at a girl. (Really, Bertie! You're letting all your fangirls down!)
The book ends with Ginger and Jeanette spending some time together "walking and swimming" (at least there are no stone benches!), and after that--nothing. Jeanette is never heard of again. Did the two have a falling out? Did they find they had nothing in common and simply drift apart? Or perhaps something along the lines of "Ginger Married" happened?
What would have happened had Ginger married Jeanette? The war was still on, so it is unlikely that Ginger would have left the squadron to start a family or anything like that. After the war ended, he wouldn't be hanging around waiting to become an air policeman--he would have gone home to be with Jeanette. Would Biggles and Algy be the godparents of his children? What kind of job would Ginger work in to support his family?
I see multiple fics brewing....
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I read a fanfic where Jeanette died. Poor Ginger took to hard drink!
ReplyDeleteI actually imagine Jeanette coming over to London rather than him staying in France. But there my imagination lets me down.
What happened to everyone else after Ginger took to drink? Did Biggles give him a good talking-to?
ReplyDeleteBiggles gave him a gentle talking to.
ReplyDeleteThe "we don't brood and we don't booze" talk. In the end Ginger saw sense and I think, learned how to mourn Jeanette quietly.
So he didn't go off and kidnap someone and almost murder them and then shoot a policeman? How boring... :)
ReplyDeleteWell, Ginger isn't as crazy as Algy, is he? He had a 'red mist' moment when he thought someone was going to shoot Biggles and was horrified later at what he'd done. But I guess that is somewhat boring after what Algy is going through!
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Can you remember where the fic was posted? I'd like to read it.
ReplyDeletePersonally I was never that impressed with the whole Ginger/Jeanette pairing. I just didn't think they were very well matched. Jeanette may have been a nice girl with a good heart, but she did strike me as being, well,
ReplyDeletejust a little - dare I say it - dull.
Ginger on the other hand lived for adventure - the sort of person who would run away from home in rags to fulfil a dream of becoming a pilot; who was daring and resourceful and flew around the world on wild adventures. I think to be happy Ginger would need a girl a bit feistier; one keen to join him on his adventures, than the quiet, stay-at-home Jeanette.
Poor Ginger had only kissed her once on the forehead and the girl's mother was already planning wedding bells!
I reckon the real reason they broke up is that while Jeanette and her mother were plotting nice safe desk jobs and ten babies for him, Biggles and Algy were busy planning treasure hunts and round the world trips for after the war...
I can see Ginger quickly having second thoughts....
After the initial attraction faded Ginger probably caught a severe case of cold feet and high-tailed it out of there faster than a Spitfire with a dozen Messerschmitts on its tail...
Making the others vow never to mention Jeanette's name again....
I do agree that Jeanette and Ginger are worlds apart, although wej made a point of showing how courageous and great Jeanette was (going to find Bertie, knowing how to speak English and so on). Also, her brother was a pilot so she can't be that far removed from Ginger's world.
ReplyDeleteI do find it sad that wej wrote this girl in knowing that she and Ginger were unlikely to end up together. Maybe he thought that Ginger needed a touch of romance in his life (he would have still been like 25 or so when Fails To Return was going on). Or maybe Ginger just had a glance at what his life might have been and got slightly carried away before coming back to reality and realizing that it was never meant to be.