Though I have never thought of myself as a book collector, there are shelves in our house browsed so often, on so many rainy winter nights, that the contents have seeped into me as if by osmosis.

It was not only Biggles who soared into the sky in his aeroplanes – the imagination of every schoolboy in the world who devoured his exploits and adventures also took wing. He was every child’s hero, ...

You can keep your boy wizard. Having grown up in the sticks during the 1960s, there is still only one fictional hero for me: the lantern-jawed Captain James Bigglesworth – a rank, incidentally, that ...

Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter He's an unlikely children's hero. For starters, he isn't a child, he's a man. He smokes. He drinks whisky. He kills people. Yet ever ...

W E Johns in 1960, when Biggles was estimated to be the world's most popular hero for schoolboys Captain W E Johns's unfashionable hero deserves to soar again, says Neil Clark He fought and defeated ...

For decades, Biggles has held children in thrall with his fictional exploits as a dashing Royal Air Force pilot. But now it has emerged that his unlikely adventures may have been based on fact – in ...

06:44, Thu, Jun 21, 2018 Updated: 09:42, Thu, Jun 21, 2018 CAN a fictional hero change the course of world history? Captain, Major and later Squadron Leader James Bigglesworth, DSO, DFC, MC, arguably ...

A tidal wave of commentary on the First World War is about to break as we approach the 100th anniversary of its outbreak. Growing up in the 1950s, it was accounts of the Second World War that ...

Algy, Ginger and Bertie would be proud. A biplane made 40 years ago for a film about fictional RAF hero Biggles has been restored - by the man whose father built it. Matthew Boddington's father ...

4 Extra Debut. Alexander Armstrong explores the appeal of flying ace Biggles and examines the life of his creator, Captain WE Johns. From 2009. Show more Alexander Armstrong explores the lasting ...