The Last Edition of the
Biography of Captain W. E. Johns published in August 2003 by Norman Wright which had been fully revised and updated,
listed some 174 books as having been written by W. E. Johns. He actually WROTE 161 books. The reason for the difference of 13 books is
that that list includes books that should not be counted. For example, the list includes the six Biggles
Omnibus books published in Johns lifetime. If you count these, why not count the eleven
omnibus books published since his death?
The number of Johns books will forever increase as more are published. It also includes Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter and Biggles of 266 and Biggles
of the Royal Flying Corps, which only contain reprints of stories previously published –
see here.
The list also counts both the first edition of THE MISSING PAGE published in 1939 in Norway as 'Det Forsvunne Dagboksblad'
and the first English
translation by Norman Wright as STEELEY AND THE MISSING PAGE in 2000 (in other words it is counted
twice) and they also count the three books EDITED by W. E. Johns, as opposed to
written by him. Those three books were
1. WINGS:
A BOOK OF FLYING ADVENTURES (1931)
2. THE
MODERN BOY'S BOOK OF AIRCRAFT (1931)
IS “THE COCKPIT” A BIGGLES BOOK?
I say it isn’t. It
certainly contains the first publication of the Biggles story “The Ace of
Spades” but that was the only W.E. Johns story in the entire book.
Many Biggles short stories were originally published in books and
annuals elsewhere and then collected together.
If this book is a “Biggles” book, then so is every annual featuring a short story.
This story was collected in “BIGGLES OF THE SPECIAL AIR POLICE”.
The story was amended to be more of a children’s story when collected (i.e. swearing was removed).
However, for completeness, if you click on the red title of the
book above you can see full details of this book.
There has been an unsubstantiated claim that W. E. Johns was the
writer 'VIGILANT'
It has also been speculated that these books were written in
collaboration with others.
If any of this were true then that would add a further nine books
to Johns credit.
Those titles are:-
SECRETS OF MODERN SPYING - John Hamilton 1930
GERMAN WAR BIRDS: AN ACCOUNT OF THE EXPLOITS OF THE GERMAN FLYING
CORPS DURING THE EUROPEAN WAR - John Hamilton 1931
FIGHTING IN THE RED SHADOWS - John Hamilton 1932
RICHTHOFEN: THE RED KNIGHT OF THE AIR - John Hamilton 1934
LYNX V.C.
- John Hamilton 1936 (fiction)
LYNX SPYFLYER - John Hamilton 1936 (fiction)
FRENCH WAR BIRDS - John Hamilton 1937
LYNX COUNTER SPY - John Hamilton 1937 (fiction)
LYNX FLIES AGAIN - John Crowther 1944 (fiction)