If it’s the Red Fox edition you’re looking at I’m pretty sure those are the original text, not the bowdlerised version.
I read a history book last year about WW1 aces, and every page there was something mentioned, and it was exactly as it’s described in this and the other WW1 books. I remember a story in there about a guy who went on patrol in his pyjamas under his flying suit, got shot down and spent three days wandering around no man’s land in his pjs before he managed to get back to his squadron - you could easily picture Biggles doing that!
And Algy’s introduction is fantastic - the bit where Mahoney advises Biggles to get the letter to Algy’s mother written in advance...! And everything about the flowers. The way it ricochets between horrifying death and teenage pranks is like nothing else.
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Date: 2022-10-18 07:22 pm (UTC)I read a history book last year about WW1 aces, and every page there was something mentioned, and it was exactly as it’s described in this and the other WW1 books. I remember a story in there about a guy who went on patrol in his pyjamas under his flying suit, got shot down and spent three days wandering around no man’s land in his pjs before he managed to get back to his squadron - you could easily picture Biggles doing that!
And Algy’s introduction is fantastic - the bit where Mahoney advises Biggles to get the letter to Algy’s mother written in advance...! And everything about the flowers. The way it ricochets between horrifying death and teenage pranks is like nothing else.