For over 50 years James Biggles Worth, D.S.O., D.F.C., M.C., has flown
the skies. The mythical ace to end all flying aces, the fearless pilot
of everything from Sop with Camels to the earliest jets, he emerged with
glory from devilish scrapes all over the world. Yet until now Biggles
has often been seen as a storybook caricature. A dashed fine chap,
certainly. But not the extraordinary man he really was. Here, for the
first time, is an insight into the 'real' man who made these adventures
possible. John Pearson has unravelled the missing strands in Biggles'
life; delving vigorously into subjects that were once taboo.
Why did Biggles never marry? What was the truth about his tragic first
love? And what were Biggles' real regrets and frustrations as he tried
to come to terms with a rapidly developing world in peacetime? The
truth--so long hidden behind a stiff upper lip and an equally stiff pink
gin in the Officers' Mess--is at last revealed.
John Pearson was born in 1930, and educated at King's College School,
Wimbledon and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read history. He has
worked on various newspapers, including the Economist, The Times,
and the Sunday Times where for a time he wrote the Atticus column.
After the success of his Life of Ian Fleming, he decamped with wife
and family to Rome, where he lived for some years. Mr Pearson returned
to England to research and write the life and times of the Kray
brothers.
