BookSeriesInOrder.com





Book Notification

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)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Cruise of the Condor(1933)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles of the Camel Squadron / Fighter Squadron(1934)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Flies Again(1934)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Learns To Fly(1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Black Peril(1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Flies East(1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Hits the Trail(1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in France(1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and Co.(1936)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in Africa(1936)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Secret Mission(1937)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Flies West(1937)Description / Buy at Amazon
Air Commodore(1937)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Goes to War(1938)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Flies South(1938)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and The Rescue Flight(1939)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Flies North(1939)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in Spain(1939)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles In The South Seas(1940)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in the Baltic(1940)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles, Secret Agent(1940)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Spitfire Parade(1941)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Sees It Through(1941)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles defies the Swastika(1941)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in the Jungle(1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Sweeps the Desert(1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in Borneo(1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Charter Pilot(1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Fails to Return(1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in the Orient(1945)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Delivers the Goods(1946)Description / Buy at Amazon
Comrades in arms(1947)Description / Buy at Amazon
Sergeant Bigglesworth C.I.D.(1947)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles' Second Case(1948)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Hunts Big Game(1948)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Takes a Holiday(1949)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Breaks the Silence(1949)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Gets His Men(1950)Description / Buy at Amazon
biggles goes to school(1951)Description / Buy at Amazon
Another job for Biggles(1951)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Works It Out(1951)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Takes the Case(1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Scores a Bull(1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Air Detective(1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles of the Special Air Police(1953)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles In The Blue(1953)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Black Raider(1953)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in the Gobi(1953)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter(1954)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Foreign Legionnaire(1954)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles & the Pirate Treasure(1954)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Cuts it Fine(1954)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles of 266(1955)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in Australia(1955)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Chinese Puzzle(1955)Description / Buy at Amazon
No Rest for Biggles(1956)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Takes Charge(1956)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Makes Ends Meet(1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles of the Interpol(1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles on the Home Front(1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles on Mystery Island(1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Presses On(1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Buries the Hatchet(1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in Mexico(1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles at World's End(1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Biggles Book of Heroes(1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Goes Home(1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the leopards of Zinn(1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Missing MIllionaire(1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Forms a Syndicate(1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
Orchids for Biggles(1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles sets a trap(1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Biggles Book of Treasure Hunting(1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles goes alone(1962)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Takes a Hand(1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Flies to Work(1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Takes it Rough(1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles' Special Case(1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Plane that Disappeared(1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles And The Black Mask(1964)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the lost sovereigns(1964)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Investigates(1964)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles And The Blue Moon(1965)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles looks back(1965)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Plot That Failed(1965)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Gun Runners(1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in the Terai(1966)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Sorts It Out(1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Penitent Thief(1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the dark intruder(1967)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Boy Biggles(1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Deep Blue Sea(1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles in the Underworld(1968)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles And The Noble Lord(1969)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles And The Little Green God(1969)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Sees Too Much(1969)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles of the Royal Flying Corps(1978)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles and the Lost Treasure(1978)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles In The Antarctic(1983)Description / Buy at Amazon
Bumper Biggles Book(1983)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles And The Gibraltar Bomb(1984)Description / Buy at Amazon
Best of Biggles(1985)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Defends the Desert(1993)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles Flying Detective(1994)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles(2007)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles' Big Adventures(2007)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles' Dangerous Missions(2008)Description / Buy at Amazon
Biggles' Secret Assignments(2009)Description / Buy at Amazon
Flora Indica(2011)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Steeley Books

Publication Order of Worrals Books

Worrals Carries On(1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worrals Flies Again(1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worrals On The War-Path(1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worrals of the Islands(1945)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worrals in the Wilds(1947)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worrals Down Under(1948)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worrals in the Wastelands(1949)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worrals Investigates(1950)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worrals Goes Afoot(1950)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Gimlet Books

King of the Commandos(1943)Description / Buy at Amazon
Gimlet Comes Home(1949)Description / Buy at Amazon
Gimlet Bores In(1950)Description / Buy at Amazon
Gimlet Off the Map(1951)Description / Buy at Amazon
Gimlet Gets the Answer(1952)Description / Buy at Amazon
Gimlet Takes a Job(1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Gimlet mops up(1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Gimlets Oriental Quest(1963)Description / Buy at Amazon
Gimlet Lends a Hand(1964)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Timothy 'Tiger' Clinton Books

Kings of Space(1954)Description / Buy at Amazon
Return to Mars(1955)Description / Buy at Amazon
Now to the Stars(1956)Description / Buy at Amazon
To Outer Space(1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Edge of Beyond(1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Death Rays of Ardilla(1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
To Worlds Unknown(1960)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Quest for the Perfect Planet.(1961)Description / Buy at Amazon
Worlds of Wonder(2022)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Man Who Vanished into Space(2022)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Wings Flying Adventure(1931)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Spy Flyers(1933)Description / Buy at Amazon
Champion of the main(1938)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Missing Page(1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
Sinister Service(1942)Description / Buy at Amazon
Rustlers of Rattlesnake Valley(1948)Description / Buy at Amazon
Adventure Unlimited(1957)Description / Buy at Amazon
No Motive For Murder(1958)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Man Who Lost His Way(1959)Description / Buy at Amazon
Where the Golden Eagle Soars(1960)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

The Modern Boy's book of aircraft(1931)Description / Buy at Amazon
Fighting Planes and Aces(1932)Description / Buy at Amazon
Pictorial Flying Course(1932)Description / Buy at Amazon
Some Milestones in Aviation(1935)Description / Buy at Amazon
Thrilling Flights(1935)Description / Buy at Amazon

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 » Captain W.E. Johns

One Response to “Captain W.E. Johns”

  1. Dennis Malcolm Gedye: 7 years ago

    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!

    Reply

Leave a Reply