Biggles at World's End by W. E. Johns was first published in 1959 by Brockhampton. There have been three subsequent editions in the English language, with the most recent being the 1966 edition by Hampton Library. The events in the book take place in the late 1950s in South America.
Synopsis
Von Stalhein, Biggles' former rival has been rescued from a Russian prison colony and settled in London. He offers a tantalizing piece of intelligence. There is a cache of gold which a German warship had captured from a British merchantman during the First World War. Biggles is sent to collect it but to do so he needs to travel to the Tierra del Fuego, at the extreme southern end of South America, literally the world's end. Biggles, tired of using obsolete cast-off or borrowed aircraft, is offered a new amphibian for his Air Police inventory--the Gadfly.
Plot
Note: The sections below contain spoilers. In particular, the plot subpage (click here) has an extended summary of the narrative in the book
Characters
The Special Air Police
- Air Commodore Raymond
- Biggles
- Algy Lacey
- Ginger Hebblethwaite
- Bertie Lissie
Friends and allies
- Carter
- Barlow
- Lieutenant Mason, R.N.
- Captain Anderson, R.N. - Captain of H.M.S. Petrel, frigate
Others
- Hugo Gontermann
- Juan Vendez
- Mr Scott - ship's chandler
Aircraft
- Gadfly - the first appearance of this amphibian. There is a detailed description of it in chapter 2.
Ships
- Seaspray
- Der Wespe
- H.M.S. Petrel - frigate
- Unnamed Russian whaler
Mentioned
- S.M.S. Dresden
- Wyndham Star
- Other R.N. ships involved in the Battles of Falklands Islands and Más a Tierra. Also the German raider S.M.S. Emden
Places
Visited
- Dakar - transit
- Natal, Brazil - transit
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - transit
- Montevideo - transit
- Argentina
- Buenos Aires - transit
- Bahia Blanca - transit
- Santa Cruz - transit
- Rio Gallegos - transit
- Punta Arenas, Chile