Captain W.E. Johns Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Biggles Books
Biggles The Camels Are Coming | (1932) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Cruise of the Condor | (1933) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles of the Fighter Squadron | (1934) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Flies Again | (1934) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Learns To Fly | (1935) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Black Peril | (1935) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Flies East | (1935) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Hits the Trail | (1935) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in France | (1935) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and Co. | (1936) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in Africa | (1936) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Secret Mission | (1937) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Flies West | (1937) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Air Commodore | (1937) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Goes to War | (1938) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Flies South | (1938) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and The Rescue Flight | (1939) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Flies North | (1939) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in Spain | (1939) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles In The South Seas | (1940) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in the Baltic | (1940) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Spitfire Parade | (1941) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Sees It Through | (1941) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles defies the Swastika | (1941) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in the Jungle | (1942) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Sweeps the Desert | (1942) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in Borneo | (1943) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Charter Pilot | (1943) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Fails to Return | (1943) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in the Orient | (1945) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Delivers the Goods | (1946) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sergeant Bigglesworth C.I.D. | (1947) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles' Second Case | (1948) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Hunts Big Game | (1948) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Takes a Holiday | (1949) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Breaks the Silence | (1949) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Gets His Men | (1950) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
biggles goes to school | (1951) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Another job for Biggles | (1951) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Works It Out | (1951) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Takes the Case | (1952) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Scores a Bull | (1952) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Air Detective | (1952) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles of the Special Air Police | (1953) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles In The Blue | (1953) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Black Raider | (1953) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in the Gobi | (1953) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter | (1954) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Foreign Legionnaire | (1954) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles & the Pirate Treasure | (1954) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Cuts it Fine | (1954) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles of 266 | (1955) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in Australia | (1955) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Chinese Puzzle | (1955) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
No Rest for Biggles | (1956) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Takes Charge | (1956) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Makes Ends Meet | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles of the Interpol | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles on the Home Front | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles on Mystery Island | (1958) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Presses On | (1958) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Buries the Hatchet | (1958) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in Mexico | (1959) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles at World's End | (1959) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Biggles Book of Heroes | (1959) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Goes Home | (1960) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the leopards of Zinn | (1960) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Missing MIllionaire | (1961) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Forms a Syndicate | (1961) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Orchids for Biggles | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles sets a trap | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Biggles Book of Treasure Hunting | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles goes alone | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Takes a Hand | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Flies to Work | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Takes it Rough | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles' Special Case | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Plane that Disappeared | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles And The Black Mask | (1964) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the lost sovereigns | (1964) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Investigates | (1964) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles And The Blue Moon | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles looks back | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Plot That Failed | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Gun Runners | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in the Terai | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Sorts It Out | (1967) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Penitent Thief | (1967) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the dark intruder | (1967) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Boy Biggles | (1968) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Deep Blue Sea | (1968) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles in the Underworld | (1968) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles And The Noble Lord | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles And The Little Green God | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Sees Too Much | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Rescue Flight | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles, Secret Agent | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles of the Royal Flying Corps | (1978) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles and the Lost Treasure | (1978) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles In The Antarctic | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Bumper Biggles Book | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles And The Gibraltar Bomb | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Best of Biggles | (1985) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Defends the Desert | (1993) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles Flying Detective | (1994) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles' Big Adventures | (2007) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles' Dangerous Missions | (2008) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Biggles' Secret Assignments | (2009) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Flora Indica | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Steeley Books
Steeley Flies Again | (1936) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sky High | (1936) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Murder by air | (1937) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Wings of Romance | (1939) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Worrals Books
Worrals Carries On | (1942) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worrals Flies Again | (1942) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worrals On The War-Path | (1943) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worrals of the Islands | (1945) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worrals in the Wilds | (1947) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worrals Down Under | (1948) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worrals in the Wastelands | (1949) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worrals Investigates | (1950) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worrals Goes Afoot | (1950) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Gimlet Books
King of the Commandos | (1943) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gimlet Comes Home | (1949) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gimlet Bores In | (1950) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gimlet Off the Map | (1951) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gimlet Gets the Answer | (1952) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gimlet Takes a Job | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gimlet mops up | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gimlets Oriental Quest | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Gimlet Lends a Hand | (1964) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Timothy 'Tiger' Clinton Books
Kings of Space | (1954) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Return to Mars | (1955) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Now to the Stars | (1956) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
To Outer Space | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Edge of Beyond | (1958) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Death Rays of Ardilla | (1959) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
To Worlds Unknown | (1960) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Quest for the Perfect Planet. | (1961) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worlds of Wonder | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Man Who Vanished into Space | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Wings Flying Adventure | (1931) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Spy Flyers | (1933) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Champion of the main | (1938) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Missing Page | (1942) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sinister Service | (1942) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rustlers of Rattlesnake Valley | (1948) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Adventure Unlimited | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
No Motive For Murder | (1958) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Man Who Lost His Way | (1959) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Where the Golden Eagle Soars | (1960) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
The Modern Boy's book of aircraft | (1931) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Fighting Planes and Aces | (1932) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Pictorial Flying Course | (1932) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Some Milestones in Aviation | (1935) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Thrilling Flights | (1935) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Captain W.E. Johns was the pen name used by an English author of adventure novels William Earl Johns. He is famously known as the pioneer of the famous character- Biggles. Johns was born and raised in Bengeo, Hertford, England the son of Elizabeth and Richard Johns. The author’s dreamt of being a soldier. He attended Hertford Grammar School and also attended art classes at the local art school.
Johns was never a “serious” scholar, and this is evident in his novel Biggles Goes to School which was published in 1951. During the summer of 1907, Johns served as an assistant to a county municipal surveyor for four years, and later in 1912, he served as a sanitary inspector in Norfolk. In 1916, Johns enlisted in the military, and in 1916, he was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps- and while serving in Macedonian front in Greece, he was hospitalized with malaria. Soon after his recovery, he was enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in September 1917 and later posted back to England for flight training. He took his initial flying training at Coley Park in Reading where he flew the Farman MF.11 aircraft. He was then sent to a flying school at Thetford a place closer to where his family was living. In 1918 he was appointed a flying instructor. The aircraft of the time where unreliable dismissed three planes in three days because of engine failure- first crashed into the sand, then the sea and then flew over through a fellow officer backdoor and later was caught in fog flying over trees and narrowly escaped crashing into a cliff.
After the Second World War, Johns remained in the Royal Air Force still with the rank of Pilot Officer. His promotion to the position of Flying Officer was gazette in 1920 and worked in London as a recruiting officer.
After the death of his father, Johns married the love of his life, Maude Penelope Hunt from 1882 to 1961. Johns was a prominent author and also an editor. During his career as a writer, he authored over 160 novels including 100 Biggles books and more than 60 factual books and novels, short stories and magazine articles. John’s debut novel was Mossyface published in 1922 under the pseudonym William Earle. He also worked as a newspaper air correspondent and edited and illustrated books about flying.
The first book in Biggles series was The Camels Are Coming published in 1932. Johns continued writing the series until 1968. At first, the novels in the series were attributed to William Earle, but later Johns adopted a more familiar name “Captain W.E. Johns.”
Johns was a regular contributor to Modern Boy magazine in the late 1930’s and was wrote and edited for both Flying and Popular Flying. Johns died while writing his last Biggles novel Biggles does some Homework which was an indicator that he intended to retire after the publication of this book. The twelve chapters of his final story were published privately in 1997.
Apart from the famous Biggles series, Johns also published other novels which include- Steely series a six-volume series which began publication in 1936 to 1936 featuring a first world war pilot now a crime fighter Deeley Delaroy also known as Steeley. The author also wrote a six-volume series titled Worrals series published from 1941- 1950 a series that details the exploitation of plucky WAAF Flight Officer by the name Joan “Worrals” Worralson. This novel series was created at the request of the Air Ministry. The series was intended to inspire young women to enlist in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force.
Johns also wrote a ten-volume book titled Gimlet featuring a hero in the “Gimlet” King. The author also wrote other eight books in the juvenile fiction and other eight factual books, twelve fictions for adults and several other books in aviation and treasure hunting pirates and a book on gardening. Unusually amongst the children authors of the time, from 1935, the author employed working-class characters as an equal member of the Biggles team named Ginger Hebblethwaite- the son of a Northumberland mine. However the readers of novels that featured Ginger never learn of his real Christian name, and he claims himself to be of a Yorkshire origin.
Biggles, the Camels Are Coming
First published in 1932, Biggles the Camels are Coming is structured in a rather like an anthology of short stories. Each of the seventeen chapters in the book sees the main character in the book fly a different mission or either becomes embroiled in a distinct escapade. There is a little over-arching story to connect them which means that this is a straightforward read book to dip in and out of as circumstances or time allow.
The chapters are brief and fast-paced with plenty of occasional touch of humor and action, and overall it is a brilliant read.
Biggles and the Cruise of the Condor
First published in 1933, Biggles…..of the Condor is an intruging thriller in which the main character, Biggles helps his explorer uncle in a trip the Amazon to find a long-lost Inca Treasure and in their adventures they encounter crooks.
Biggles stories are sort of simple, relaxing, light and entertaining British war stories. The second novel is much different from the first book since he isn’t working as a pilot during wartime- which makes Biggles bored to the point that he goes to visit his uncle Dickpa who leads him into an entirely different adventure than he had anticipated.
Biggles Flies Again
In the fourth novel in Biggles series, Biggles continues his adventures into the far corners of the earth. He finds himself stranded in the swamps of British Guiana after the company that employs him as pilot folds up. Then he takes the possession of amphibian planes and proceeds to earn his daily bread by undertaking different and risky missions by air.
Accompanied by Smyth and Algy, Biggles searches for treasure in the jungles, kidnaps a brigand- chief and also leads expeditions into a reef bound lagoon. Biggles is a man who thrives on thrills, and his resourcefulness and courage are equal to the many lethal emergencies that arise in the middle of this quest.
Book Series In Order » Authors »
I read & enjoyed most of the Biggles books, starting in Grade 6, 1963, & have read a few Worrals & Gimlet books & 1 or 2 stand alone books, but many of them must be collector’s items now! Little demand so few libraries seem to have them, even Biggles!