The Boy Biggles

Rating:
Summary: an adventurer since birth
Review: Well, I have to comment on the cover-art for starters. It's totally misleading.

Biggles, as you may or may not know, was not born in England at all... in fact, he was born in a roadside bungalow in India in the spring of 1898. His father was a governor there during the British colonial era and he and Biggles' mother were on their way to a meeting when Biggles decided to make a pre-mature arrival. The rest of his life was in no way dampened by this.

The book opens when Biggles is roughly 11 years old. His mother is not in the book, nor does it say what happened to her. His father is inattentive at best, absent completely at worst, and the young Biggles is left to his own devices for most of the novel, although adults occassionally step in to act as mentors.

Biggles is the only British boy in the district, a remote part of central northern India, and all of his friends are Indian boys. He grows up speaking fluent Hindi (this will help him in the later books) and running about the countryside with a small rifle to defend himself from Tigers, Bears, and the occassional nasty human.

Written before the age of political correctness, it's interesting to see how the local Indian people were regarded by their imperial masters.

The adventures in this book will help prepare young Biggles for the trials of two World Wars, as he's already an excellent first class shot by the age of 12.

If you loved the Young Indiana Jones series, you'll love this book too.

Rating:
Summary: an adventurer since birth
Review: Well, I have to comment on the cover-art for starters. It's totally misleading.

Biggles, as you may or may not know, was not born in England at all... in fact, he was born in a roadside bungalow in India in the spring of 1898. His father was a governor there during the British colonial era and he and Biggles' mother were on their way to a meeting when Biggles decided to make a pre-mature arrival. The rest of his life was in no way dampened by this.

The book opens when Biggles is roughly 11 years old. His mother is not in the book, nor does it say what happened to her. His father is inattentive at best, absent completely at worst, and the young Biggles is left to his own devices for most of the novel, although adults occassionally step in to act as mentors.

Biggles is the only British boy in the district, a remote part of central northern India, and all of his friends are Indian boys. He grows up speaking fluent Hindi (this will help him in the later books) and running about the countryside with a small rifle to defend himself from Tigers, Bears, and the occassional nasty human.

Written before the age of political correctness, it's interesting to see how the local Indian people were regarded by their imperial masters.

The adventures in this book will help prepare young Biggles for the trials of two World Wars, as he's already an excellent first class shot by the age of 12.

If you loved the Young Indiana Jones series, you'll love this book too.