Review: Biggles of 266

Biggles of 266 by W.E. Johns
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit I have a soft spot for this series. Before the war movies, before the Commando Comics, before Blue Max, before even the history books, there were the summer afternoons with words on a page that would take me across the planet, seventy years in the past, and fifteen thousand feet up. I'd feel the cold, the wind, the vibration, be deafened by the roaring engines, squint into the blue for telltale twinkles of color, smell the oil and the cordite, sway with the gforces... it started a lifelong interest, and opened up a whole new way of looking at history as something so much more alive than dates and things that happened. It was a world now.
It was all words, and the only images I'd ever seen to show what it looked like was on faded, tattered covers - but the world behind the words was crystalline, gloriously detailed, and fun.
Could any ten-year-old ask for more in a story?

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