Johns, Captain William Earl

Johns, Captain William Earl (1893-1968), author, b. Hertford, England.

Captain Johns served in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War (1914-18).

He was shot down over Germany and ended the war in a prison camp.

After the war, he served in the Royal Air Force until 1930.

In 1932, he started a magazine called Popular Flying and began writing short stories in it about Captain James Bigglesworth, better known as 'Biggles'.

Afterwards the short stories were published in a book The Camels Are Coming, and seventy more books about Biggles followed. He became the most popular hero in boys' adventure books of his time.

During the Second World War (1939-45), Johns toured Britain lecturing for the RAF and wrote books about two new characters-'Worrals' of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force and 'Gimlet', a Commando.

After the war, besides the Biggles books, he wrote a number of science-fiction stories for children.

Biggles became popular all over the world. The books sell in many different countries at the rate of several million copies a year.