Biggles/von Stalhein

[kiwisue]

Every now and then I go trawling through my memories of childhood reading, trying to recapture a thought or two about various books and what they meant to me. Today's subject is Biggles. I had stacks of Biggles books, H&S and paperback. Although I wince now when I recall the racial stereotyping and "white man's burden" tone of many of them, I still have a very soft spot for the heroic Bigglesworth - and his arch-rival Erich von Stalhein.

I suspect that the nature of the relationship between Biggles and von Stalhein paved the way for my later appreciation of slash far more than any 'reading' of Biggles' relationships with Ginger, Algy or Bertie. The sidekicks were just that - I never took to them much. On the other hand, von Stalhein was a wonderful antagonist. And the books had lashings of one or the other being thumped on the head, held at gunpoint, tied up... mmmm, I can see where many of my peculiar kinks came from!

When it comes to Biggles' appearance I'll cheerfully admit that these days in my mind he looks a lot like John Barrowman (am shallow *g*). However I've been trying to find pics of von Stalhein on the internet and the only one I've found that looks anything like him is here:
http://www.biggles.info/Details/63/Illustrations/
He still doesn't look like the von Stalhein of my imagination *sigh*. Ascetic, lean, yes, and with trademark monocle, but better looking (better hair, definitely), less weasel-like.

Dose anyone share my secret passion? And if you do, who would you cast as Biggles and/or von Stalhein in a made-for-fans epic adventure?

ETA: I found more von Stalhein pics that are much closer to my image of the man:
http://www.biggles.info/Details/42/Illustrations/
It's the "I shall have to be going" one.
http://www.biggles.info/Details/40/Illustrations/

Comments

[vesta-sgc.livejournal.com]

OMG

Biggles is one of my all-time heroes - along with Tarzan (I have the entire set of ERB books, but Ron Ely always did it for me) and Zorro (long live Tyrone Power) and I adored him. It''s been many years since I read the books, so my memory of von Stalhein is hazy at best but you've woken me up with the image of John Barrowman as Biggles himself - PERFECT!! I think I'd better hit the library!

Even Neil Dickson, in that so very tongue-in-cheek movie in the '80s, was pretty damn good as Biggles :)

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Even Neil Dickson, in that so very tongue-in-cheek movie in the '80s, was pretty damn good as Biggles :)

*digression* And Daniel Flynn (Ginger in the movie) made a pretty darned good Henry VIII in "A Man for All Seasons" a couple of years ago.

The movie was fun, but it wasn't 'my' Biggles *g*

Ideas for von Stalhein??? How do you think SB would look in a monocle?

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

If you go to semyaza's main page you'll see her recent posts about Biggles under the 'Biggles' tag.

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Ooh! And linkage to biggles_slash!

Thank you !

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

My pleasure. :-)

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

For some reason I never thought to try the Biggles books but I did try Arthur Ransome and his Swallows and Amazons series....I don't think I ever got beyond the first page, what with all those reef knots and other imcomprehensible nautical terms. And Malcolm Saville, remember him? Another kind of author and story I couldn't get on with. So I ended up sticking to my old favourite genres of adventure and boarding school stories such as Enid Blyton, Angela Brazil and The Chalet School, but it does sound as though I missed out on some good stuff.

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

I've read a couple of Swallows and Amazons, Enid Blyton. Never any Malcolm Savile. Wish I could remember some of the others - not many school stories amongst them, although there was one about a boarding school which was also a riding school.

[noblesentiments.livejournal.com]

about a boarding school which was also a riding school

Oh, I wonder if that was the 'Jill' series? I had 'Jill has two ponies'...the only other person I know to have read those is HR who mentioned it way back at her LJ.

A new political era is dawning for you today, isn't it? Hope it's the government you wanted!

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's the 'Jill' series, but thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Hope it's the government you wanted!
That remains to be seen. It's got to be better than the one we've had!

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

Loved the page with all the covers, recognizing quite a few.

Masses I never heard of.

Intrigued by "Biggles Takes It Rough" !!

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

Half of the ones I read were paperbacks, so the covers were different. I think I had at least a dozen - barely scratched the surface!

Intrigued by "Biggles Takes It Rough" !!

Oh, yes!

[luthien.livejournal.com]

My bedroom, when I was growing up, contained 27 Biggles books. My room had been my dad's room when he was growing up and the Biggles books were all ones he'd collected.

Biggles slash. I'd read that.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

May I point you to biggles_slash? *is stalking kiwisue backwards from said community* ^_^