William Earl Johns is best known as the creator of James Bigglesworth, better known as Biggles, who featured in ninety eight books of adventure stories. Joan Worralson, aka Worrals, on the other hand appeared in just eleven books and the first three were finally republished in 2013 by Indiebooks after a long period out of print. Whilst it’s good to see these stories back in print I think it’s a pity that the cover illustrations are so childish with Worrals and Frecks depicted as apparently far younger than their actual age in the book which is eighteen and seventeen respectively. With that in mind I think I prefer the original dust wrapper from the first edition in 1941, although in that picture Worrals looks more in her early twenties.

W E Johns adopted the title Captain for his writing career although he never achieved that rank during actual service as a fighter pilot and later a flying instructor during WWI. Remaining in the R.A.F. after the war he was promoted to Flying Officer in 1920 whilst working as a recruiting officer, ultimately transferring to the reserves in 1927 before finally relinquishing his commission in 1931. The following year he wrote his first Biggles book ‘The Camels are Coming’, the title referring to the Sopwith Camel biplane rather than the bad tempered quadruped. His long career in the air force obviously informed his detailed descriptions of flying and the aircraft used, and you can be pretty sure that if Johns says a plane handles a specific way then it really did. The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force which had both Worrals and Betty Lovell, aka Frecks due to her freckled face, as members was founded in 1939 and during WWII it’s members performed various support roles to the R.A.F. including transferring aircraft between airfields and repair sites although this was a relatively uncommon function, most were employed in far more mundane duties. Worrels is therefore highly unusual in performing this task as this was actually a job for the Air Transport Auxiliary which eventually did employ around 100 women, but as a recruiting agent she apparently worked well.

The story begins with Worrals receiving a dressing down by the Squadron Leader for having gone out on a short training flight in a Reliant in contravention of standing orders which did not permit females to fly combat aircraft and she is to be punished along with the Flying Officer who flew with her by loss of leave and in his case a transfer to a forward airfield. Shortly afterwards the Squadron Leader rather shamefacedly asked her to fly the same plane as it needed moving and apparently with the transfer of Bill he had nobody left who had previously flown that make. All rather unlikely but it is really just a device to get Worrals, and Frecks as a passenger up in the air where they spotted a mysterious aircraft and received a general all planes message on the radio that it needed stopping. As the only plane in the vicinity Worrals engaged the other plane and luckily shot it down but not before seeing it swoop low over what appeared to be a golf course. If flying a combat aircraft without specific authorisation wasn’t bad enough before, then actually partaking in combat was very much forbidden, however Worrals managed to talk herself out of further punishment by pointing out that she was flying the only combat plane that had seen the mystery aircraft and otherwise it might have escaped. Worrals not only avoids further censure but gets her weekend leave reinstated.

Worrals decides to use her leave to do some unofficial investigation as she doesn’t think she was taken seriously over the activity at the golf course so taking Frecks with her they head off to the property only to be captured by German spies and the plot unfolds as they slowly work out what is happening during bouts of freedom as they alternatively escape and get recaptured a few times. The plot is well thought out and Johns certainly provides plenty of tension as the two women engage in a battle of wits with the Germans and although a few escapades somewhat stretch the readers credulity I had to remember that I was not the target readership which was largely teenage girls and young women during the war. Having said that I nevertheless enjoyed my first experience of Worrals, but I doubt I’ll read another. I read a lot of Biggles at around the age of ten and I can’t see me rereading any of those either. It was fun though and if you like what is now called Young Adult adventure stories then W E Johns has a lot to recommend him. Please be aware though that the books are very much of their time and although Worrals is largely UK based in all her books, Biggles travelled the world and often had a very 1930’s/40’s attitude to the people he found there.

With thanks to The Ironbridge Bookshop for the loan of the book so that I could try a Worrals rather than reading my extremely delicate and worryingly rare Penguin edition of Biggles Flies Again