W.E. Johns was born William Earle Johns in Hertford in 1893. He worked as a surveyor after school, then served in the army from 1916 and the newly formed Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. He remained in the Air Force until 1930 when he became a newspaper air correspondent and founded the magazine Popular Flying, in the pages of which his famous character, Biggles (Major James Bigglesworth) first appeared. He wrote a total of 98 biggles books starting with The Camels Are Coming in 1932, published under the pseudonym William Earle.

Johns also wrote on many other subjects including a book on Gardening, not to mention his Science Fiction books and Gimlet Books. He died in 1968.

For more information on Biggles please visit our Biggles Article.

In this Biggles index you will find the images of early or 1st editions Biggles books (mainly of the dust wrappers). Some images act as links to further information. Many images have been provided courtesy of www.biggles.info

No. 1 The Camels are Coming
1st Published by John Hamilton Ltd, 1932