The First Biggles Omnibus (1964) By Captain W.E. Johns
 
This title, first published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1953 is a bit of a misnomer because it is not the first omnibus edition of Biggles books and in any case, it is preceded by The Third Biggles Omnibus published in 1941.
 
This omnibus edition contains the following four Biggles books which deal with his adventures during World War 2 as Commanding Officer of 666 Squadron:
 
Biggles Sweeps the Desert
Biggles in the Orient
Biggles Delivers the Goods
Biggles Fails to Return
 
The back of the dustjacket of the 1953 1st ed. contains a foreword by W. E. Johns where he states that he had known Biggles for a long time. Some of the boys who had read Biggles were themselves senior officers in the R.A.F. He introduces new readers to Biggles, explaining that he was a charter pilot recalled to service at the beginnning of World War 2 but had not been assigned to a regular squadron. He was to take charge of a special duty squadron whose pilots were of proven ability but who did not take well to the discipline and routine of a normal unit.
 
Johns also deals with requests for Biggles to "write his autobiography". He has already written some of Biggles' exploits as a schoolboy but feels that autobiographies are seldom honest because modesty or shame "forbids the most illuminating confessions." In any case, he had already written, by then, some three million words on Biggles, "which should be enough to get on with."
 
Hard Cover
640 pages
In Good Condition