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Internet mentions   :   (for The Press Cuttings Collection see here)

(A selection from the huge amount of Internet mentions...)

Vince Hagedorn's pancake landing received wide Internet coverage - nearly 100 articles last time I looked. Here is the Scottish TV report, including an interview with Mr Hagedorn. Ed.
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There is now an entry for the plaque in Hertford on the waymarking website.

13th August 2010
This article does not mention Biggles or WEJ, but sounds so much like another episode of Biggles, Charter Pilot that I could not resist including it!

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27th July 2010
Auctioneers reported that this day's auctions were being filmed for Dickenson's Real Deal. Whether the particular W E Johns item mentioned (lot 119) will be included in the programme on transmission I do not know, but might be worth keeping an eye open for the next series.

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18th May 2010
The story of a housesale in Lingfield, Sussex, in which the Deeds state that the building cannot be sold without the collection of some of Johns' books housed in it, appears in The Telegraph as well as the Bed and Breakfast guide to Winchester.
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10th May 2010
In the past week, web search returns have been inundated with "blog" references to Biggles that have nothing whatever to do with Biggles or W E Johns. The key words are inserted into political articles; presumably the writers have noticed the popularity of certain figures and just put the names into the middle of their articles so that they come up in Internet searches. I have attempted to report this to Google, but have not been able to find a way to do so. At one time, the company was concerned to squash such obvious misuse of search engines.

23rd April 2010
This "foodie" blog, includes a description of a visit to the Biggles Bar at Lydd Airport, with a picture of the dining area.
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19th April 2010
This interesting blog by Steve Holland is about the Italian artist Caprioli, who became known after illustrating The Biggles Book of Treasure Hunting for Ranger magazine. Johns is mentioned briefly, but the article is well written and informative about the foreign artists who (unknown to us as the pictures were not signed) illustrated many British magazines. Caprioli's work in the Ranger is of particular importance as it was the first magazine able to reproduce the fine detail in which he worked.
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29th March 2010
Gardening articles and blogs frequently quote Johns: many such writers probably only know of his gardening interests and his writing for the gardening magazine The Passing Show. Here is one that has a nice reference to Biggles as well.
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29th March 2010
An interesting article about the man who was the face of the RAF on the famous wartime poster, includes a reference to him meeting WEJ before the war.
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12th February 2010
Although this blog entry mentions W E Johns in passing, it is informative about the"weeding" of books in public libraries and I think relevant to this section.
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12th December 2009
Novelist Hilary Mantel has written an interesting article entitled "A Life of Biggles" in The Guardian of 12th December.
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11th November 2009
UK Commentators blogs refer to the report on what might be the remains of Cambyses' army.
"If they really have found the remains of Cambyses' army, it would be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time. The dry desert should have hopefully preserved weapons and armour - and what of the paymasters' bullion, and the loot ?
There's only one slight problem. According to Capt W.E. Johns, the lost army was discovered by Biggles, Algy and Ginger in the late 1930s. It was also discovered by oil prospectors in 2000."
(refers to an article in the mailonsunday)
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29th October 2009
Newquay Zoo have made a wartime garden. Part of the display includes an issue of The Passing Show. The writer sounds interested in discovering another side to WEJ.

(Johns' gardening comments are popular, perhaps with people who do not even know about Biggles, and appear in several blogs. This one is particularly popular:
"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show")
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6th October 2009
In his "Airminded" blog, Brett Holman comments about our website:
"Via the site, one can keep up with W. E. Johns, Biggles, Worrals et al in the press, or explore the wider world of Bigglesiana on the web. (Which introduced me to a site devoted to Popular Flying, a magazine edited by Johns which featured articles by a number of airpower writers familar to me, such as J. M. Spaight, E. Colston Shepherd, Arch Whitehouse and Nigel Tangye.)"
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30th September 2009
Under the heading, "Who wrote 'The Adventures of Biggles', this article by Kevin Patrick discusses the comic books, saying that the title was intended to capitalise on the popularity of the radio series then running in Australia.
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14th August 2009
Bishop David Chillingworth (of Dunkeld and Dunblane)'s blog entry on Vince Hagedorn's escape read:
"Well done, Sir. And all of us who get through the day by tuning into one or other of our fantasy worlds salute you. Today I’ve been in ‘pale and drawn from too many dawn patrols’ mode - oil-stained flying jacket - looking down on the trenches and reflecting, ‘Poor bloody infantry.’ "
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23rd July 2009
In an interview on Mariah's blog, writer Storyheart mentions Biggles as an early hero:
"What was your favorite book growing up? What about now? Do you have a favorite genre or do you like them all?"
"I have always loved adventure books, when young my hero was Biggles by Capt W.E. Johns somebody perhaps the US would never have heard of."

Please keep watching for mentions of W.E. Johns and his characters in the media.       Home page