>Steve: not sure if I dare ask, but what are the Biggles books? You >and Hell both seem to have heard of them; I, who grew up in the >U.S., never have. Are they maybe a UK/NZ kind of thing?
Yes, very much a Brit and British Commonwealth thing. Capt. W. E. Johns was a WW1 pilot who started writing short stories for magazines in the '30s, based on his experiences, but featuring a character called Biggles. He later started writing full-length books, taking Biggles and his comrades through the '30s, WW2, and into the '50s and '60s. Some of the earlier books contain some ethnic, racial and national stereotyping very common in the world of their day, causing some to be banned from libraries, etc. in recent years. Trivia - I just watched the great NZ movie Heavenly Creatures again, which features Kate Winslett and her friend reading Biggles books and "flying" through the garden. -- ######################################################## Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The Tinker's Own" http://www.tinkersown.com "The Living Tradition Concert Series" http://www.thelivingtradition.org/
