The WW1 stories are my favourite* because they’re so lightning fast and breathtaking and real and you can so easily tell that these are WEJ’s stories, if, not his then the people he knew, and he’s just channelling the things that happened in a way that can be digestibly read. If someone asked me for a Biggles rec I think I’d go with Pioneer Air Fighter just for the breakneck speed of it and just how much elation and fear and tenderness and heartbreak was packed into so few pages <3 I don’t ‘know if it would get published today, but I feel like just generally kids books in the ‘olden days’ did not shy away from death and misery and struggle?
Do you think Biggles would have been better off if he’d had his father and brother around immediately after the war? I haven’t read the books about his childhood but I get strong Not Great vibes. Like at the very least, not close and not nurturing. And that he would maybe have preferred the relief of being able to fall apart on his own terms, rather than trying to have to be the person they want him to be, for them.
The opening of Condor struck me as so discordant with much of the rest of the book - Biggles is so clearly Not Ok but then he’s having a weird adventure and almost in a child like role again, with flashes of Not Okness and I just did not really like the book, I prefer your take…
*my favourites are ALSO the ones with a cracking good story like Flies East and In the Orient
*my other favourites are the ones where they have good vibes, and I really love Bertie so he gets a book extra points
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Do you think Biggles would have been better off if he’d had his father and brother around immediately after the war? I haven’t read the books about his childhood but I get strong Not Great vibes. Like at the very least, not close and not nurturing. And that he would maybe have preferred the relief of being able to fall apart on his own terms, rather than trying to have to be the person they want him to be, for them.
The opening of Condor struck me as so discordant with much of the rest of the book - Biggles is so clearly Not Ok but then he’s having a weird adventure and almost in a child like role again, with flashes of Not Okness and I just did not really like the book, I prefer your take…
*my favourites are ALSO the ones with a cracking good story like Flies East and In the Orient
*my other favourites are the ones where they have good vibes, and I really love Bertie so he gets a book extra points