Max Markham is the author of Indigo Bird – An Erotic Novel. For more information on the author and his work, please visit Max Markham’s Section on this website.
This article is part of a series of posts about my favorite top ten gay Englishmen.
It was always going to be hard to choose ten favourite gay Englishmen, as there are so many who deserve inclusion. So I am going to exceed my quota and provide an Appendix of a small number of runners-up.
James “Biggles” Bigglesworth is an exception to the men so far covered in this series, in that he never existed: he is a character from fiction. Nor did his creator, the late Captain W E Johns, intend him to be a gay icon. Far from that; he was a hero and role model to two or three generations of British schoolboys. He probably still would be, but the Biggles novels have been effectively banned by the politically-correct thought police. You will not find them in school or public libraries any more, nor are they likely to be reprinted, although they could be bought in paperback into the 1980s. Now you have to search for them in second-hand bookshops. First editions are rare and collectable. The ban on Biggles is due not to the thinly disguised homoerotic content, but to Biggles’ unreconstructed right-wing attitudes and allegedly frequent use of expressions, racial, social and gender-related, which were unremarkable at the time when the novels were written but are now very politically-incorrect indeed. While Biggles is normally on the side of the angels, he is also given to violence: to the satisfaction of his youthful readers, the villains – German spies, drugs barons, Soviet agents, etc – are not merely defeated, but frequently killed in extremely nasty ways.
The early Biggles stories and novels; especially those set in World War I, were apparently written mainly for older adolescents. Death is treated frequently and sometimes in a gruesomely realistic fashion; other “adult themes” are also touched on – for instance, on at least one occasion Biggles sets out on a mission with a “red mist” in front of his eyes, inspired by the death of a comrade. Combat fatigue is also realistically described, as Biggles becomes a “highly-strung” fidgeting pale young officer, lacking his usual sense of humour. In these stories, in particular, alcohol is mentioned occasionally and cigarettes are greatly in evidence: shocking! Later stories are for a younger readership; references to cigarettes and alcohol become fewer.
Biggles first appeared in the short story The White Fokker, published in the first issue of Popular Flying magazine in 1932. The first collection of Biggles stories, The Camels are Coming, was published the same year. The series continued until the author’s death in 1968, reaching nearly a hundred volumes, including novels and short story collections.
James Bigglesworth was reportedly born in India in 1899, the son of an Englishman in the Imperial Indian Civil Service and his wife, née Lacey. The young James kept a lifelong affection for India, where he had befriended local Indian boys; explored the countryside and learnt to speak fluent Hindi. He retained a gift for languages and as an adult spoke French and German fluently, with a “fair command” of some other languages. Like many children of the Raj, Biggles was sent “home” to the UK to attend a public school in England. His first encounter with an aircraft was with a Bleriot that was forced to land on the school cricket ground. Biggles spent most of his academic holidays in England, with an eccentric uncle; an inventor who lived in rural Norfolk.
Aged seventeen, but pretending to be eighteen, Biggles left school and joined the army as a subaltern in a rifle regiment in 1916. He then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and learned to fly in the summer of 1916, flying solo after two hours of instruction. He then attended No. 4 School of Fighting at Frensham, Lincolnshire.
Posted to France with just 15 hours solo, he first flew in combat in September 1916 with 169 Squadron, RFC. In 1917 he was transferred to 266 Squadron RFC, commanded by an Irishman, Major Mullen. With 266 Squadron Biggles flew the Sopwith Pup and the famous Sopwith Camel, forming a close friendship with his young cousin Algy (the Hon. Algernon Montgomery Lacey). A study of the short stories featuring his World War I exploits suggests that he claimed at least 32 kills, and was shot down or crash-landed eight times. He was awarded Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and the Military Cross (MC) and Bar.
Biggles chose not to remain with the armed forces after the end of the war in 1918. This was not because he resented the amalgamation of the RFC with the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) to form the Royal Air Force (RAF). This move was intensely disliked by some officers in both services. Biggles, however, just did not fancy peacetime soldiering. In fact, he did not like peacetime, period.
“The trouble about civil life is that nothing ever seems to happen. What interest people got out of it before the war I can’t imagine. It must have been deadly dull. Even peacetime flying is so tame that I can’t get a kick out of it. No ack-ack (anti-aircraft gunfire) no nothing – just fly from here to there, and there you are. This peace seems a grim business to me, what do you think about it?” (Biggles and the Cruise of the Condor) This is the cue for Biggles to set off on a dangerous adventure to Brazil.
After the First World War Biggles’ adventures as a freelance charter pilot took him around the world in an unidentified flying boat named the “Vandal” The nearest “real” aircraft that fits W E Johns’ description of the “Vandal”, is a Vickers Viking Mk 4. His team of good guys in these adventures grew when he and Algy met young Ginger Hebblethwaite – a “salt of the earth” working class lad – while foiling a possible German plot against Britain in The Black Peril. Ginger brought the energy and daring of youth to these, and many of their later, adventures. Between the wars Biggles and his small team mix their own escapades with commissions on behalf of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).
Ginger Hebblethwaite is Biggles’ protégé and first makes his appearance in The Black Peril, as a lad of fifteen or sixteen. Out of ninety-seven books, Ginger appears in all but thirteen. Over the span of books Ginger slowly matures from the resourceful young person he was when he first met his hero, through an adolescent with a childlike interest in everything new and mechanical, into a trusted comrade who is Biggles’ chosen companion; more often than not in the second seat in the cockpit. The name Hebblethwaite derives from a village near Sedbergh in Cumbria; Ginger is a Northern lad.
Biggles returns to service with the RAF in the Second World War, initially with a Supermarine SB6 type machine in the Baltic area, and then in Norway. He later becomes Commanding Officer of 666 Squadron, RAF; a Special Duties squadron that fought in the Battle of Britain before being sent around the world on specific assignments. Biggles, Algy, and Ginger Hebblethwaite are joined by a new companion, the Wodehousian, monocle-wearing wearing Lord Bertie Lissie. Johns had to update his material with references to new RAF slang and aeroplanes. Biggles’ new squadron includes a diverse cast, including the American ‘Tex’ O’Hara, the Welshman ‘Taffy’ Hughes, the Cockney ‘Tug’ Carrington, the Oxford graduate Henry Harcourt and ‘Ferocity’ Ferris from Liverpool.
After the Second World War Johns reinvented Biggles’ career again, with his former boss, Air Commodore Raymond hiring him as a “flying detective” for Scotland Yard. Biggles returns to his rooms in Mount Street, Mayfair, and assumes a role as head of the new Special Air Police division with Algy, Ginger and Bertie making up the flying squad. The group takes on criminals who have taken to the air, both at home in the UK and around the globe, as well as battling opponents behind the Iron Curtain. The team fly a variety of machines.
The Biggles books contain no explicit sexual content; the traditional values of bravery, honesty and fair play are stressed. Romantic storylines are also omitted, with only the very occasional exception. In the Biggles stories, female characters appear rarely. Despite brief romantic attachments, Biggles and his chums remain steadfastly single. Biggles suffers a bitter disappointment in World War I, when he falls in love with Marie Janis, who turns out to be a German spy, in the short story Affaire de Coeur, which is set in 1918. This traumatic experience apparently puts Biggles off women for life; all girls are really German spies at heart. That at least is his story. I do not buy it. Biggles’ heart is clearly set on Ginger, Algy and their ménage a trois. No one could doubt James Bond’s liking for women: by complete contrast, Biggles comments unguardedly that he much prefers smoking (with his chums) to contact with the opposite sex! Now read on…
Closer reading of the Biggles stories may surprise us with their suggestion of a hero very much in tune with the modern gay movement; even down to some suggestive book titles: Biggles Gets His Men (1950), Biggles Takes It Rough (1961), Biggles Takes a Hand (1962 ), and Biggles Sees Too Much (1968 ). Strewth! Fast forwarding to the 2005 TV episode of Dr Who, which introduced Captain Jack, a RAF officer, and we find a character who is a conscious tribute to Biggles, to the point of also having a friend called Algy. Gay actor John Barrowman has made the role of Captain Jack (in Dr Who and the Torchwood series) very much his own. Captain Jack is explicitly gay.
Biggles has a number of enviable qualities, especially in a gay man. It goes without saying that he is extremely brave. Although slightly older than the twentieth century, he was still going strong when his creator died in 1968. A final, incomplete Biggles novel, Biggles Does Some Homework, was found among Captain Johns’ papers after his death. That would make Biggles about seventy. However he seems never in real terms to advance beyond age thirty; an age at which I for one would have been very happy to remain, given the choice. He clearly has private means: Biggles is never troubled by financial considerations like “can I really afford this expedition?” No; it is always, hire a plane, up and away. As noted above, Biggles owns an apartment in Mount Street, Mayfair: a very good address. Significantly, most if not all the time he appears to share this bachelor pad with Algy and Ginger, to both of whom Biggles is clearly deeply attached.
Biggles is extremely attractive: “Slim, clean-shaven and straight as a lance, his carriage suggested military training that was half-denied by the odd, wistful look on his pale, rather boyish face; tiny lines graven around the corners of his mouth and steady grey eyes gave him an expression of self- confidence and assurance beyond his years. His voice was crisp and decisive, as in one accustomed to making decisions and being obeyed.” This is the young Biggles, just after the First World War in Biggles and the Cruise of the Condor. As he never gets much older, he still presumably looks like this during and after the Second World War.
Gentlemen, what is there not to like about Biggles? He is the ideal gay hero. Join me in raising a glass to him, wherever he now is!
The Indigo Bird
An Erotic Novel by Max Markham
James Graveney, a young Major in a respectable regiment, is outwardly conventional. In private James is bisexual, with a strong urge for his own sex. Gay sex, however, is illegal in the Army, so he is discreet about this.
James’ world is turned upside-down when he meets Lieutenant Richard Finch. Richard is intelligent, charismatic and exceptionally handsome. He doesn’t mess around. He gets what he wants, and is completely unscrupulous about how he gets it. Richard will stop at nothing to achieve this, including Machiavellian deception and a cunning and brutal murder. James starts responding to Richard, cautiously at first, then gets swept along on the great love affair of his life.
The Indigo Bird is a rollercoaster of surprises set against backdrops varying from the jungles of Belize to London, the English countryside, and Ireland, and the scene is set for more shocks and adventures. [Read more...]
The Indigo Bird is available through Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords.com, Amazon Kindle US, Amazon Kindle UK, and any other good bookstore.
