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Biggles Carves the Turkey is a short story which was first published in The Modern Boy Issue 360, 29th December 1934. The story was subsequently gathered and published in 1935 in the anthology Biggles in France where it spanned chapters 16 and 17 and were titled Turkey Hunting and Biggles Gets the Bird.

The story was republished in Biggles of 266 where it appeared as the 5th chapter under the title The Turkey. It reappeared in the Red Fox Biggles in France and the 2009 Norman Wright edition. Both of these versions retained the chapter division and titles of the 1935 edition.

In the Modern Boy sequence, this story is preceded by Biggles' Sky High Spy and followed by Biggles' Paperchase.

Synopsis[]

It's Christmas time and Biggles is determined to get a turkey for dinner, even if it means flying behind enemy lines.

Plot[]

Characters[]

Aircraft[]

Places[]

Visited[]

  • Maranique

Mentioned[]

Editorial Changes[]

Other Research Notes[]

  • Biggles "bent forward to see if his gunsight was in order...." This suggests that he was equipped with an Aldis sight. A ring and bead iron sight wouldn't need to be checked in this way.

References to the past[]

Incongruities[]

Chronology[]

  • From a chronology point of view, this story is from the second block of Modern Boy stories which went into Biggles in France. This block was published about 4 months after the first block. In contrast to the first block, the second block appears to be set later during the war. Biggles is obviously a flight commander, and a captain and Algy Lacey has joined the squadron. The festive theme allows us to place the story quite accurately at 24th December 1917 or just before.[1]

Publication History[]

  • The Modern Boy, Issue 360, 29th December 1934
  • Biggles in France, Boy's Friend Library No. 501 7th November 1935 (as two chapters: Turkey Hunting and Biggles Gets the Bird)
  • Biggles of 266, 1956
  • Biggles in France, Red Fox, 1993 and subsequent reprints
  • Biggles in France, Norman Wright, 2009

References[]

  1. Ward Powers. "What Happened to Biggles in WW1?" Biggles Flies Again Vol. 3 No. 1, June 2009.

External Links[]

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