Picture of author.

W. E. Johns (1893–1968)

Author of Biggles of the Camel Squadron

319+ Works 8,712 Members 177 Reviews 9 Favorited

About the Author

Disambiguation Notice:

(dut) Do not list titles (Dr., Sir, Saint, etc.) or degrees (PhD, MA, DDS, etc.) with names. A book whose author is named Edward Pedant, PhD should appear simply as Pedant, Edward. Because of this, I removed the Captain title from the authors name

Series

Works by W. E. Johns

Biggles Learns to Fly (1935) 215 copies
Biggles and the Black Peril (1935) 208 copies
Biggles and Co. (1936) 180 copies
Biggles Flies Again (1934) 174 copies
Biggles Defies the Swastika (1941) 173 copies
Biggles of 266 (1955) 164 copies
Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter (1950) 153 copies
Biggles Goes to War (1938) 148 copies
The Camels Are Coming (1932) 143 copies
Biggles Flies East (1935) 141 copies
Biggles Sweeps the Desert (1942) 131 copies
Biggles Flies West (1937) 129 copies
Biggles in the Orient (1945) 127 copies
Biggles in Spain (1939) 122 copies
Biggles Flies North (1939) 114 copies
Biggles Flies to Work (1963) 114 copies
Biggles Delivers the Goods (1946) 109 copies
Biggles Fails to Return (1943) 105 copies
Biggles Air Detective (1950) 99 copies
The Boy Biggles (1968) 99 copies
Biggles Hits the Trail (1935) 97 copies
Biggles Breaks the Silence (1949) 92 copies
Biggles Flies South (1938) 87 copies
Biggles in France (1935) 87 copies
Biggles Hunts Big Game (1948) 81 copies
Biggles in the Baltic (1940) 78 copies
Biggles in the South Seas (1940) 77 copies
Biggles - Air Commodore (1937) 76 copies
Biggles in the Jungle (1942) 75 copies
No Rest for Biggles (1956) 74 copies
Biggles' Chinese Puzzle (1955) 72 copies
Biggles' Second Case (1948) 72 copies
Biggles Works it Out (1951) 72 copies
Biggles Foreign Legionnaire (1954) 72 copies
Biggles in Australia (1955) 71 copies
Biggles in the Blue (1953) 70 copies
Biggles Follows On (1952) 68 copies
Kings of Space (1954) 67 copies
Biggles and the Blue Moon (1965) 67 copies
Biggles of the Interpol (1957) 67 copies
Biggles in Africa (1936) 66 copies
Biggles Sorts It Out (1967) 66 copies
Biggles Takes a Holiday (1949) 66 copies
Return to Mars (1955) 63 copies
Biggles Charter Pilot (1943) 63 copies
Biggles in Borneo (1943) 62 copies
Biggles Gets His Men (1950) 60 copies
Biggles Goes to School (1951) 58 copies
Biggles Takes it Rough (1963) 55 copies
Biggles Buries a Hatchet (1958) 48 copies
Biggles: Spitfire Parade (1941) 48 copies
Biggles in the Terai (1966) 48 copies
Biggles - Secret Agent (1940) 48 copies
Biggles Investigates (1964) 48 copies
Biggles Sees it Through (1941) 47 copies
Orchids for Biggles (1962) 47 copies
Biggles on Mystery Island (1958) 44 copies
Biggles and the Black Mask (1964) 43 copies
Biggles in the Gobi (1953) 42 copies
Another job for Biggles (1951) 41 copies
Biggles in Mexico (1959) 41 copies
Biggles Makes Ends Meet (1957) 40 copies
Biggles presses on (1958) 39 copies
Biggles' Secret Assignments (2009) 37 copies
Gimlet Goes Again (1944) 36 copies
Biggles Takes the Case (1952) 36 copies
Biggles in the Underworld (1968) 34 copies
Biggles Takes Charge (1956) 33 copies
Biggles on the Home Front (1957) 33 copies
Biggles' Special Case (1963) 33 copies
Biggles at World's End (1959) 33 copies
Gimlet's Oriental Quest (1960) 32 copies
Biggles Cuts it Fine (1954) 31 copies
Worrals on the War-Path (1943) 30 copies
Biggles Sees Too Much (1970) 30 copies
Biggles and the Noble Lord (1969) 30 copies
Biggles and the Gun Runners (1966) 30 copies
Biggles' Combined Operation (1959) 29 copies
Worrals of the W.A.A.F. (1942) 28 copies
Worrals of the Islands (1945) 28 copies
Worrals in the Wilds (1947) 27 copies
Worrals Flies Again (1942) 27 copies
Biggles Sets a Trap (1962) 26 copies
Gimlet Mops Up (1947) 26 copies
King of the Commandos (1943) 25 copies
Biggles Forms a Syndicate (1961) 24 copies
Gimlet Lends a Hand (1949) 24 copies
Gimlet Bores In (1950) 24 copies
Biggles Goes Home (1960) 24 copies
Gimlet Comes Home (1946) 23 copies
Worrals Goes East (1944) 22 copies
Comrades in arms (1947) 21 copies
Gimlet Takes a Job (1963) 19 copies
Biggles Looks Back (1965) 18 copies
Gimlet Off the Map (1951) 17 copies
Biggles goes alone (1962) 17 copies
Biggles Scores a Bull (1965) 17 copies
Worrals Carries On (1942) 17 copies
Worrals Down Under (1950) 17 copies
Worrals goes afoot (1946) 16 copies
Biggles Collection No 2 (2001) 16 copies
Worrals in the Wastelands (1949) 13 copies
Gimlet Goes to War (2010) 12 copies
Biggles , tome 3 : Le Bal des Spitfire (1992) — Author — 10 copies
Worrals Investigates (1950) 10 copies
Adventure Bound (1955) 10 copies
Adventure Unlimited (1957) 7 copies
The Spy Flyers (1975) 7 copies
Sky High (1936) 6 copies
Steeley Flies Again (1951) 6 copies
Champion of the Main (1949) 4 copies
Fighting planes and aces, (1932) 4 copies
Short Sorties (1950) 2 copies
De laatste Zeppelin (1995) 2 copies
De slag om Frankrijk (1999) 2 copies
Biggles (1995) 2 copies
No Motive for Murder (2004) 2 copies
The Air V.C.'s 2 copies
Thrilling Flights (1935) 2 copies
The Raid (1935) 2 copies
Murder By Air (1951) 2 copies
Sky Fever 1 copy
Desert Night 1 copy
Mossyface 1 copy
Biggles 1 copy
The Biggles Omnibus (1965) 1 copy
Big Box of Biggles (2010) 1 copy
Biggles en het lokaas (1938) 1 copy

Associated Works

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Johns, William Earl
Other names
Johns, William Earl
Johns, Captain W. E.
Earle, William (pseudonym)
Birthdate
1893-02-05
Date of death
1968-06-21
Burial location
Kingston-upon-Thames Crematorium, UK (cremation)
Gender
male
Nationality
UK
Birthplace
Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Place of death
Hampton Court, Herefordshire, England, UK
Cause of death
heart attack
Places of residence
Swaffham, Norfolk, England, UK
Education
Hertford Grammar School
Occupations
municipal surveyor
sanitary inspector
Trooper, British Territorial Army
2nd lieutenant, Royal Flying Corps
flying instructor
bomber pilot (show all 11)
prisoner-of-war
Flying Officer, Royal Air Force
recruiting officer
journalist
writer
Relationships
Johnson, Amy (friend)
Organizations
Norfolk Yeomanry
Machine Gun Corps
Royal Flying Corps
No. 55 Squadron, RAF
Disambiguation notice
Do not list titles (Dr., Sir, Saint, etc.) or degrees (PhD, MA, DDS, etc.) with names. A book whose author is named Edward Pedant, PhD should appear simply as Pedant, Edward.
Because of this, I removed the Captain title from the authors name

Members

Reviews

Some enjoyable tales about Biggles early life. The chronology doesn't quite fit but thats a minor issue, a bigger issue is how often he has to kill dangerous animals. Good old fashioned boys own adventure.
½
 
Flagged
bookmarkaussie | 2 other reviews | Feb 5, 2024 |
A series of stories of Biggles' flights of daring in WWI -- each chapter standing alone in plot, but forming an emotional arc (early on he mentions never touching whiskey; later on as his CO and friends worry about him they remark on his drinking rather a lot of the stuff) until the final ironic end. Absolutely jam-packed with jargon, it's like learning a new language.
 
Flagged
zeborah | 5 other reviews | Nov 28, 2022 |
Its possible my low expectations have resulted in this high mark but i'm not sure. Its a very solid spy-thriller. With a few touches of women vs male authority. I actually would have preferred if Worrals was a little older as being 18 lends an extra YA element to proceedings too, which was unnecessary.

These kind of spy adventures can be very convoluted and messy like the awful [b: Thirty-Nine Steps|147114|The Thirty-Nine Steps (Richard Hannay, #1)|John Buchan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388186765s/147114.jpg|2422487]. But this one is very solid and logical. Even when things go wrong, its never because of bad decisions, or at least not because of stupid decisions.

Its fast paced and short tale with very likable characters. There is one bit near the end where i felt it introduced too many new elements and we had a bit of an information dump but it did lead to some nice dramatic scenes.

Far better than the one biggles book i read as a kid :) .
… (more)
 
Flagged
wreade1872 | Nov 28, 2021 |
Another brilliant Biggles novel.
I know, I'm biased. He was my first book-crussch after all..
 
Flagged
HeyMimi | 3 other reviews | Jan 1, 2021 |

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Paul Couturiau Translator
Leslie Stead Illustrator
Alfred Sindall Illustrator
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Peter Archer Cover artist, Cover designer
Studio Rowal Illustrator
Howard Leigh Illustrator
Ton Stam Translator
Waldemar Post Illustrator
Willem Johansen Translator
J. Abbey Illustrator
R. van Giffen Illustrator
Norman Howard Illustrator
M. J. Heeresma Translator
B. Schmidgall Translator
Pim van Boxsel Illustrator
H.G. Mosmans Translator
Wim Bijmoer Illustrator
Matt Kindt Illustrator

Statistics

Works
319
Also by
1
Members
8,712
Popularity
#2,748
Rating
½ 3.4
Reviews
177
ISBNs
585
Languages
9
Favorited
9

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