Download Biggles: The Authorised Biography eBook

by John Pearson

John Pearson English

Download Biggles: The Authorised Biography eBook

ISBN:

0600200620

Author:

John Pearson

Language:

English

Publisher:

Littlehampton Book Services Ltd; New edition edition (August 28, 1980)

Pages:

320 pages

EPUB book:

1439 kb

FB2 book:

1544 kb

DJVU:

1931 kb

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Rating:

4.2

Votes:

701

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Biggles: The Authorised Biography Hardcover – 15 Jan 1979.

Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction. Biggles: The Authorised Biography Hardcover – 15 Jan 1979. by. John Pearson (Author).

John George Pearson (born 5 October 1930) is an English novelist and an author of biographies, notably of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, and of the Kray twins. Pearson was born in Epsom, Surrey. He was educated at King's College School, Wimbledon, and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he gained a double first in history. He then worked for The Economist, BBC Television and The Sunday Times

Start by marking Biggles: The Authorised Biography as Want to Read: Want to Read savin. ant to Read. by John George Pearson.

Biggles: The Authorized Biography. In Biggles, his fictional biography, first published in 1978, John Pearson has unraveled the missing strands in Biggles' life; delving vigorously into subjects that were once taboo. From the author of All the Money in the World, now a major motion picture directed by Ridley Scott, comes the fictional biography of the mystical and fearless ace, James Biggles Worth. Why did Biggles never marry? What was the truth about his tragic first love?

John Pearson first met Ian Fleming back in 1954 when he was a young journalist, and Fleming, whose career as creator of Agent 007 had barely started, offered him a job as his assistant on the Sunday Times Atticus column. Pearson got to know Fleming well, and after his death in 1964, was commissioned to write what would become his highly successful ‘Authorised Biography of Ian Fleming’.

Biggles: The Authorised Biography. Author:Pearson, John. World of Books Australia was founded in 2005. Each month we recycle over . million books, saving over 12,500 tonnes of books a year from going straight into landfill sites. See all 2 pre-owned listings. Biggles: The Authorised Biography by John Pearson (Paperback, 1980). Pre-owned: lowest price.

From the author of All the Money in the World, now a major motion picture directed by Ridley Scott, comes the fictional. For over fifty years, James Biggles Worth, . has flown the skies in everything from Sop with Camels to the earliest jets, he emerged with glory from devilish scrapes all over the world.

He was not in the mood to talk to anyone – least of all anybody as demanding as Ian Fleming. Besides, Fleming was a journalist

He was not in the mood to talk to anyone – least of all anybody as demanding as Ian Fleming. Besides, Fleming was a journalist. But when he did, that drawling voice from the far end of the telephone. was strangely sympathetic. Met your managing director out at lunch today. I'd heard about your previous spot of bother in the office, and he filled me in on your threatened change of employment. I had an idea which quite appealed to him. It might be something of a solution. He's coming to lunch with me at Blades tomorrow to discuss it further. I think you ought to come.

James Bond: The Authorised Biography. Oil tycoon J. Paul Gerry created the greatest fortune in America - and came close to destroying his own family in the process. Of his four sons who reached manhood, only one survived relatively unscathed. One killed himself, one became a drug-addicted recluse and the third had to bear the stigma all his life of being disinherited in childhood.

Super P

This writer, obviously a fan of the books, has taken them in order and compiled a 'biography' of the flying ace. By treating Bigglesworth as a real person we do lose out on the influences on Capt. W.E. Johns.

The earlier books, of Sopwith Camels that could land in a farmer's field so the pilot could borrow a cup of petrol to get home, were the best to my mind, written from intense personal experience and compiled from short stories written for boys' comics. After that, Johns wrote what his editors told him would sell. For instance, Biggles fell for a young lady during WWI but she turned out to be spying for Germany. The editors told him that the boy readers wanted no mushy stuff, just derring-do. So poor old Biggles was never allowed to have a relationship again, except very manly ones with his pals Algy, Bertie (an ass) and Ginger, a boy they acquired when they'd all gotten too mature to interest kids. They became one-dimensional characters, occasionally quite racist because everyone was at that time.

Biggles got to have an arch-enemy, a German flying ace, because recurring characters are easier to write and for kids to read. This took him through the Second World War as well. But finally this man came to realise that the Nazis had been wrong and not the Germany he had been born to, and he and Biggles, and the Allies, made peace.

A couple of the better novels are when Johns explored other genres. He gave us a pirate story about a cursed gold doubloon in the Caribbean, and a science-fiction story about a mountain of magnetic substance in Tibet. (Biggles Hits The Trail.)
Johns also wrote about a man called Gimlet which are good tales but these are not explored in this book.

The author, Pearson, had previously written a book about Timbuctoo. Therefore he gets to write and insert his own short story about Biggles and pals, and they go to Timbuctoo for no very good reason, crash and have to rebuild a plane from parts, like The Flight Of The Phoenix. That's about halfway through the book.
What more can I say? If you're interested have a read; if you would rather stick with the novels, do that. It's not a bad treatment of the character, but I would rather read a biography of WE Johns.

Frlas

Biggles The Authorised Biography
12 chapters and 311 pages, covering the period from about 1910 to 1970.
In this book some of the questions you were afraid to ask are finally answered. Whether those answers are correct though is another matter.
Readers familiar with all of Johns' Biggles books may be aggravated by this work. Speaking for myself, I quite enjoyed reading this, particularly the first half, but at the time I first read it (1979 ?) I had only read about 60 out of the 85 odd Biggles. If you are willing to accept a tongue-in-cheek approach to Biggles, this is it. You will learn something of the Honourable Algernon Lacey's multifarious amorous interludes herein. Of most interest is his liaison with the teutonic (German) Countess Irmgard von Sternberg, aviatrix and heroine of the Third Reich.
Unfortunately, the wings come off the narrative by the time one gets to the last 100 pages, when the anecdotes move into the post-war Air Police period.
This book appears to be written more with the adult reader in mind than juvenile readers, if you can tell the difference. If you are not sure about that distinction, you might like this book.
If this is the authorised biography, then who authorised it ? Certainly not WE Johns himself.