Latest News / Updates
September 4th 2024
I've added the most recent Canelo editions to the system, and added upcoming editions to the left hand bar.
March 27th 2024 I'd assumed the Canelo editions were stopping at 4 as there was no sign of anything more coming this last year, but Amazon have updated releases up to 2026 (although it might mean 2025) with some great titles coming back into print.
If you've not picked the first 4 up yet they are decent budget hardbacks and will make a lovely collection if they continue to grow it
Feb 10th 2023 Registration, login and account settings have all been fixed. I think they've been down for several years due to an update in Googles Captcha. Should all be working again now.
I've made a couple of updates to functionallity to make the account feature more user friendly. You should be able to see and update your collections again. If you can think of account collection functions you'd like to see drop me an email.
Jan 20th 2023 I totally missed this but Canelo have started printing Biggles Books in hardback. Starting with 'Baltic', last seen in print 40 years ago and last seen in hardaback 71 years ago, and 'Sees It Through' getting its first release since 1963! The books are nicely produced with nicely textured printed boards with a glossy embossed 'Biggles' logo and feel great in-hand.
I'd rather a dustjacket but they are nevertheless smart editions.
Looks like more are in the works too 
'Second Case' and 'Breaks The Silence' due in March. A number of further books are already available in ebook so I hope the series run.
In other news, I'm part way through Biggles And I. Don't be put off by the terrible cover, it's a funny and heartfelt set of stories and vignettes about the authors childhood in relation to his collecting and reading Biggles. Well worth checking out.
Jan 4th 2020 Welcome to a new year. I hope everyone is safe and well in these interesting times. A huge thanks to everyone who has dropped me mails over the last year or so with either corrections or just to chat. I appreciate them all. Not much happening publishing wise with Biggles but a large number of out of print books have recently landed on the Amazon Kindle store. I'll try and get them linked individually on their respective pages in time.
Biggles e-books on Amazon
May 14th 2019 My tidy up went a bit far and I ended up rewriting a fair chunk of the site. Or at least tightening up the code a lot and removing repetition. There is still a way to go but Im happier with the way it's holding together now. Oh, I've also freshened up some of the images and display as it was looking a little lost on larger monitors. I still hope to get it responsive one day but that would require a bigger re-write than I have time for at the moment. If you notice anything really off or not working, please do let me know.
April 9th 2019 Has it really been that long? I've started on some tidying up and fixes. The registration should now work again and I'm removing all the flash widgets as its now deader than two doornails. I'll update any fixes or quality of life changes that happen (if they do).
January 18th 2016 There's been very few updates / new releases recently but The Works has 'Biggles Adventure Double' for £2 at the moment. Get one and get one for a friend.
December 4th A large, impressive collection of Biggles books, articles and ephemera are going under the hammer at Southerbys on the 9th December. If you've got deep pockets it looks like some wonderful stuff is to be had.
May 30th 2014
Some apologies. Sorry if you have sent me updates to the site and they are yet to appear, I'm in a middle of a house move and it's all been hectic. Also sorry if you had forgotten your password and found there was no way to retrieve it. I couldn't find the code anywhere so I think it might neve have been done. Oops. It's there now so will return your password by email when requested.
March 26th 2014
If you are looking at getting your Biggles collection off the ground you can get 15 Red Fox editions for just £12.99 off The Book People (via Amazon)
The books are previous editions and clearly being sold cheap as the new editions come out, but the price is good.
Norman Wright has announced that his latest edition, Biggles Flies East is the last book to be published in his series. A huge thanks has to go out to Norman for providing us with such a quality run of the hard to find Biggles stories over the past 20 years.
20th November 2013 I have started to update publication information based on the latest research from Mr Nouwens. I will update listings as new information is supplied and will add the latest changes to the right hand menu on the front page. Once again thanks to Ian for the hard work which makes this site possible.
October 15th 2013 I have received the schedule for Red Fox releases over the next year and a bit. Looks like a fill release of 16 books is planned and breaks down as follows:
September 11th 2013 - Red Fox are republishing at least 6 new paperback editions next year. Starting in January they will be releasing 2 every 2 months. 'Flies East' and 'Learns to Fly' arrive in January, 'Camels are Coming' and 'Of The (Camel) Fighter Squadron' in March and 'In France' and 'The Rescue Flight' in May. Others will no doubt follow.
September 10th 2013 - Norman Wrights next publication will be a reprint of what is often considered one of John's best Biggles books 'Biggles Flies East'. It will feature the same wealth of extras as previous NW editions of the early books with a number of plates added reproducing early illustrations. The book is avaliable for pre-order from Norman now.
September 10th 2013 FAKE 'BIGGLES DOES SOME HOMEWORK'
A message from Norman Wright -
I have been informed by two or three collectors that fake copies of the paperback first edition of 'Biggles Does Some Homework' are, from time to time, being offered for sale - usually via internet auction sites, at about half the 'going rate' of genuine copies.
I have not actually seen one of these fake copies but from scans sent me by an unfortunate purchaser of one, is appears the fakes have covers copied from a genuine 1st edition but with the cover image trimmed closer to the edge, removing parts of the picture -
thus Raymond is missing some fingers at the bottom, and part of the tree on the left hand side of the image is trimmed off. The big difference, however, is that on the fake copies the fraudster appears to have re-set the type and the word 'BIGGLES' on the title
page is much narrower than on genuine copies. On a genuine copy the word 'BIGGLES' on the title page is as wide as the wording 'Does Some Homework' on the line beneath it. On the fake copies the word BIGGLES is about two letters narrower each side than this.
I have also been told that the quality of the paper on the fake copies is inferior to the paper used for the genuine book. I have told the collectors concerned to inform the police - as this is most certainly fraud and whoever is producing and selling them needs to be brought to book.
Best wishes,
Norman
July 3rd 2013 'Indie Books' Worrals editions are now available to order via amazon. Click on the covers below to order.
July 1st 2013 The Royal Airforce Museum will be hosting An Afternoon with Biggles on 27th of July. In what sounds like a fantastic event, there will be a talk on W.E.Johns and the comparison of his career with that of Biggles, and a tour of WWI aircraft. Details can be found on the RAF Museum site and the press release can be found here. Entry is £25 for non members but let them know Biggles Online sent you and take advantage of the 'Lightning' rate of £20.
June 13th 2013 Indie Books with support from The RAF Museum in London are releasing a set of new editions of Worrals books. Worrals of W.A.A.F., Worrals Carries On and Worrals Flies Again will be avaliable in hardback for the first time in decades with brand new jackets and interior art. It looks like a retro, distressed feel will be used in a similar way to the Prion releases.
The books will be launched at an open event on Thursday 4th July, 4-6pm at The RAF Museum, London, NW9 5LL. An invitation can be found here. The full press release can be found here
The books will be avaliable to buy online and will cost £12 each.
15th May 2013 The long lost 1960's Granada TV series is finally coming to DVD. Amazon have preorders open for this 6 disk, 44 episode set. Starring Neville Whiting as Biggles and John Leyton as Ginger, this 'Algy-less' series retold a number of Johns books in episodic format.
Update The release for the DVD has been pushed back to March 2014.
March 17th 2013 Biggles and the Noble Lord is the latest release from Norman Wright. Norman is now accepting orders and the book is hoped to ship in April.
4th September 2012 Continuing his alternate publishing schedule of WW1/Later Air Police books, the next publication by Norman Wright is 'The Rescue Flight' one of the two complete WW1 stories (rather than short stories), this new release appears to have had the complete NW works with accompanying images from the original 'Modern Boy' publications and the Oxford frontis.
30th March 2012 Norman Wright has announced his latest release, which is Biggles Sees Too Much, the last Biggles completed book published. Ordering for the book is open and the book is expected to be ready for shipping within a week or so. Normans next release will be 'The Rescue Flight' and will include the 'Modern Boy' illustrations, in keeping with the series.
1st March 2012 Apologies for the recent downtime. We are all back and running again now. Biggles The Authorised Biography appears to be heading for a reprint according to Amazon. I wasn't aware of publishers 'Bloomsbury Reader'. Their site says their goal is to 'bring excellent books currently avaliable back into print'. I'll have to admit that their desire to reprint the Authorised Biography is a bit of a puzzler, as it's generally considered to be not very good. I'm a bit of a Biggles fan as you may have noticed, and I've never made it past the first few chapters. (Updated to say now only a kindle version appears avaliable)
15th November 2011 A bit of a milestone reached. It's taken 3 years but all the imagery supplied by Mr. Ian Nouwens has been inputted into the site. A big thank you again to Ian for supplying the data. A divorce and several house moves prevented it getting done sooner. I am now going through my own collection adding to and improving images where possible, I'll then move onto illustrations hopefully. You might notice one or two improvements and changes to the site too. I'll be adding some new features when I can figure out how to structure them. As always if you see anything you can provide a better quality scan of or anything missing please don't hesitate to mail me.
Thanks, James
2nd November 2011 In time for Christmas, Norman Wright has announced the 12th hardback edition in his reprint series. Biggles in the Underworld is the latest book to receive the collectors edition treatment. Unavailable in hardback for over 40 years, the book is now avaliable for pre-order from Mr Wright.
29th June 2011 Norman Wright has announced the next of his Collectors Editions. Not a rare book to find, but containing all the original Modern Boy and Boys Friend Library illustrations, it makes a valuable edition to his Collectors Series of books. This will be the second release of the year from Mr Wright, following on from his February release of Biggles and the Gun Runners. In other news I have fixed a number of small bugs on the site and images should be appearing in all places that images should be expected. I plan on making some more enhancements to the site soon, 
it's been too long neglected. I am going to start by attempting to complete the insertion of all the missing cover images yet to be processed. Thanks to the people who have mailed with support and with edition variation or clarifications. Your help is much appreciated.
19th November 2010 A long overdue update. Norman Wright has released a new hardback collectors edition of 'The Camels Are Coming'. Avaliable now, this is the first time this book has been published in hardback since 1938 so well worth looking out. In other news the registration system is now working thanks to a fixed CAPATCHA. Sorry about that.
15th June 2010 This months 'Book and Magazine Collector' has a nice article on Norman Wrights' Limited Edition series, along with a chance to win a copy of his latest release 'Biggles In The Terai'. Oddly the magazine has an image from one of the Prion books on the cover. In related Prion news, they are releasing 'Gimlet Goes To War' containing 'King of the Commandos', 'Gimlet Goes Again', 'Gimlet Comes Home' and 'Gimlet Mops Up'. I'm sure someone will be along to correct me but I think this is the first time the Gimlet books have been printed for about 30 years. Any book with Nazi Werewolves has to be good, right? The book will be released in August
19th May 2010 - Norman Wrights latest hardback is due to be shipping in a few weeks. Limited to 300 copies, they can be ordered directly through Norman as usual.
In other news, real life has got in the way of me updating recently. The site is not dead, just resting a bit. Normal service will be resumed.
12th February 2010 Just noticed that a PHP upgrade had killed all the images on the site. Should all be back in their rightful place now.
3rd December 2009 - There is still time to pencil in some new presents on that christmas list, right ? Norman Wrights announced his next publication, which is 'Biggles Learns to Fly'. In a change to his usual releases, this book isn't a rare one, still being in print today. It does however have the original text and reproductions of the original images included. The book should be available late December / early January.
25thSeptember 2009 - Another compilation is on its way from Prion. Released on 1st October, Biggles' Secret Assignments contains Biggles' Second Case; Biggles Breaks The Silence; Biggles Gets His Men and Biggles Follows On.
4th August 2009 - I've added some new functionality for registered users. You can now select the editions that you own and view them in a list. I did it mainly for my own sake so I can remember what's in my collection when out and about, but I hope others find it useful. I intend to add further information in the future to allow the addition of notes ect. about your collection. Books added to your collection are strictly only viewable by yourself.
5th July 2009 - A new addition to the Norman Wright library has been announced. Continuing Normans work to provide new issues of the harder to find Biggles books, a new hardback edition of 'Biggles Scores a Bull' will be released in August. Copies are avaliable for pre-order from Norman as of now.
In other news I am back to the task of adding the edition scans. I'm trying to set myself to add at least a couple of books a week. Also in response to a number of emails, I've added a page outlining what is needed off you if you have information about editions not listed. All additions and corrections are very much appreciated.
19th February 2009 - Norman Wright has announced his next release will be a hardback of 'Biggles In France'. First published in Boy's Friend magazine, 74 years ago, this will be the first time it has been published in a hard cover. Complete with the original illustrations from its first printing, the book will be avaliable from the middle of March.
21st September 2008 - The International Biggles Association will be holding a Mega Biggles Auction on 18th October 2008. The auction will be held at Het Tolhuis in Amsterdam and starts at 10.45am with doors opening at 10am. You can however bid via email before the event. Further information and the auction listings can be found by heading to The International Biggles Association site (link is a PDF)
28th August 2008 - Norman Wrights next publication will be a reprint of the hard to find 'Biggles Looks Back'. An important book character wise, this will be its first time back in print in over 40 years. The book should be available in the next 4-6 weeks.
8th August 2008 - Prion books have just released a second 'retro' style compilation of Biggles books. Biggles in Australia, Biggles Secret Agent, Sergent Bigglesworth CID and Biggles Air Commodore are all included in 'Biggles Dangerous Missions'.
[click here to visit Prions site]
19th June 2008 - Into the 30s now with the covers. I've had my first years renewal for the domain name so I've been a year on this site. I'll work harder.
12th March 2008 - The first 21 books now have images, still a way to go. Also Norman Wright has announced a new hardback copy of Biggles - Air Ace. Norman is currently accepting preorders of this edition, limited to 300 copies, for release in early April.
20th February 2008 - I am currently working on getting the covers and associated images up for all the books but only the first dozen or so have a complete overview.
