MORE ABOUT THIS PHOTOGRAPH
Probably the most well-known photo of W. E. Johns is this one:-
Taken by Victor Drees and copyright held by Getty images.
Johns is holding a copy of “Biggles on Mystery Island” published in July
1958. The photograph was taken on
Saturday 2nd April 1960.
But what page has Johns opened the book at? You can’t read
the numbers or the words but you can in fact work it out by zooming in on
a high resolution photograph. The chapter title has four
words. I am confident is saying it is “Axel Tells His Tale” and the
book is open at page 85. I worked it out from the spacing of the
letters and the lines, even though you can’t actually read them. I
was then able to confirm that from this relatively unknown photo below:-
This was taken at the same time. Johns is wearing the
same clothes and has the book open at the same page. You can’t read
the words, but you get a better angle of the page and you can see from the
spacing of the lines that is matches exactly with page 85! And just
for the sake of completeness, in the first photo, another page number is
showing where the book hangs open. That is page
65. Again, you can tell from the spacing of the words. And
if you open Biggles on Mystery Island at page 85, it does hang open at page 65,
just after an illustration as that is where the second section of bound pages
ends.
Here is another photo, from the same session:-
I loved the first photo so much, that I commissioned the artist
Andrew Skilleter to draw it for me in 2011 and he did a fantastic job
……
And finally, what are the Biggles books in the background of the
photograph of W. E. Johns and his bookcase? Here is
my list:-
Top row – left to right
BIGGLES IN AFRICA – August 1936
BIGGLES AIR COMMODORE – May 1937
BIGGLES FLIES WEST – September 1937
BIGGLES FLIES SOUTH – May 1938
BIGGLES GOES TO WAR – May 1938
BIGGLES IN SPAIN – May 1939
THE RESCUE FLIGHT – May 1939
BIGGLES FLIES NORTH – May 1939
BIGGLES – SECRET AGENT – May 1940
BIGGLES IN THE BALTIC – June 1940
BIGGLES IN THE SOUTH SEAS – September 1940
Second row – left to right
BIGGLES HUNTS BIG GAME
BIGGLES IN BORNEO
BIGGLES FAILS TO RETURN
BIGGLES DELIVERS THE GOODS
BIGGLES IN THE GOBI
BIGGLES IN AUSTRALIA
NO REST FOR BIGGLES
BIGGLES TAKES CHARGE (3 COPIES)
BIGGLES MAKES ENDS MEET
BIGGLES ON THE HOME FRONT
BIGGLES TAKES CHARGE (ANOTHER COPY)
BIGGLES MAKES ENDS MEET (CBC VERSION)
BIGGLES PRESSES ON (3 COPIES)
BIGGLES ON MYSTERY ISLAND (2 COPIES)
Gap because Bill Johns is holding a copy of Biggles on Mystery Island
BIGGLES BURIES A HATCHET
BIGGLES IN MEXICO (3 COPIES)
UNKNOWN AND UNRECOGNISABLE BOOK
Third row – left to right
NO MOTIVE FOR MURDER (4 COPIES)
BIGGLES ON MYSTERY ISLAND (CBC VERSION) (2 COPIES)
THE DEATH RAYS OF ARDILLA (4 COPIES)
BIGGLES PRESSES ON ? (2 COPIES)
BIGGLES COMBINED OPERATION (6 COPIES)
BIGGLES IN MEXICO ?
3 UNKNOWN AND UNRECOGNISABLE BOOKS