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Excerpted emails re: Biggles Follows On
The following exchange this morning was too much fun not to share. It references the first couple of chapters of Biggles Follows On, in which Cold War spy hijinks occur, as well as canon-typical flirting.
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scioscribe: Started this last night, and I'm extremely amused to see that it begins with Ginger spotting von Stalhein in London and LITERALLY ALL of Biggles's friends being like, "We should report him to some kind of higher authority immediately and possibly have him arrested," while Biggles is 100% like, "Hmm, I don't know. Maybe we should just keep an eye on him ourselves and make thinking about von Stalhein our brand new job. And isn't he just so noble and honorable and skilled? I will now defend spies in general and von Stalhein in particular for half an hour. And we can't get him arrested for nothing, can we? Oh, you have an actual charge? Well ... that's not really important, is it? I vote we still just keep monitoring the situation."
Biggles's friends: "HE'S TRIED TO KILL YOU."
Biggles: "Ha, yes, he does do that sometimes." *stares wistfully off into space*
sholio: I KNOW. Also, the very first thing Biggles asks, IIRC, is "How did he look?" Not "what's he up to" or ANY OF THE OTHER REASONABLE QUESTIONS that one could ask about one's archenemy turning up in England, but more like:
Biggles: How'd he look? Did he look well? Is he sleeping okay? What was he wearing? I need to visualize this properly.
Biggles's friends: ....
scioscribe: YES. That is 100% the vibe. Biggles wants to know 1) are his fantasy images still accurate and 2) should he bring him soup.
sholio: I now feel it would be ENTIRELY in character for Biggles to decide that von Stalhein looks like he's not taking care of himself and actually show up to bring him soup. Picture it: Von Stalhein has managed to sneak into England on a fake passport, such sneaky, very spy, feeling very good about himself, and then there's a knock on the door of the lodgings he's rented under an assumed name and it's Biggles with tea, soup, and strict instructions to take it easy until he gets over that lingering cold.
scioscribe: Honestly, if you told me that happened in the books, I'd believe you.
scioscribe: Started this last night, and I'm extremely amused to see that it begins with Ginger spotting von Stalhein in London and LITERALLY ALL of Biggles's friends being like, "We should report him to some kind of higher authority immediately and possibly have him arrested," while Biggles is 100% like, "Hmm, I don't know. Maybe we should just keep an eye on him ourselves and make thinking about von Stalhein our brand new job. And isn't he just so noble and honorable and skilled? I will now defend spies in general and von Stalhein in particular for half an hour. And we can't get him arrested for nothing, can we? Oh, you have an actual charge? Well ... that's not really important, is it? I vote we still just keep monitoring the situation."Biggles's friends: "HE'S TRIED TO KILL YOU."
Biggles: "Ha, yes, he does do that sometimes." *stares wistfully off into space*
sholio: I KNOW. Also, the very first thing Biggles asks, IIRC, is "How did he look?" Not "what's he up to" or ANY OF THE OTHER REASONABLE QUESTIONS that one could ask about one's archenemy turning up in England, but more like:Biggles: How'd he look? Did he look well? Is he sleeping okay? What was he wearing? I need to visualize this properly.
Biggles's friends: ....
scioscribe: YES. That is 100% the vibe. Biggles wants to know 1) are his fantasy images still accurate and 2) should he bring him soup.sholio: I now feel it would be ENTIRELY in character for Biggles to decide that von Stalhein looks like he's not taking care of himself and actually show up to bring him soup. Picture it: Von Stalhein has managed to sneak into England on a fake passport, such sneaky, very spy, feeling very good about himself, and then there's a knock on the door of the lodgings he's rented under an assumed name and it's Biggles with tea, soup, and strict instructions to take it easy until he gets over that lingering cold.scioscribe: Honestly, if you told me that happened in the books, I'd believe you.
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I also love Biggles saying, but he couldn’t settle down and get a normal job! He’s so aristocratic and military, he couldn’t work in an office! And Lord Bertie Lissie sitting in the office next to him going AHEM.
There are points where Algy and Ginger do actually say, why don’t you just ask him out to dinner and get it out of your system.
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And the Soviets decided to keep him as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact fell apart or maybe he volunteered because the Nazis eventually got too much for him, he became fully Soviet double agent then.
Then they might have continued to trust him somewhat post-1945.
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And then he turns against the Nazis at some point during WWII, and picks his old Soviet contacts because that's the most realistic option for him to secretly work against them.
And then you can have him either remain opportunistically post-1945, or just too deeply entangled, or actually have one of these weird 20th century ideological shifts that people had.
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I did write a fic where he walked in on them in bed together...
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Algy: Goodbye, walking into the ocean now.
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And he could tell them he'd rather die.
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I have always vaguely regretted that my local library didn't have these books when I was growing up -- I've never actually read them but from all I've osmosed over the years, 11-year-old!Xparrot would've adored them. And I'd never heard that there was villains-to-friends, my very favorite!
(I'm pretty sure 43-y-o!Xparrot would still enjoy them, she just reads a lot less now and there is a LOT of them ^^;;;;)
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I could email you the couple of books that I think make the best foe-yay starter kit if you want to give them a try ...? (Totally understand if you're not in a headspace for trying new things right now, though!)
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...You may know me too well. :P
I would actually love the foe-yay starter kit, as long as it's with the understanding that I have no idea what my brain will or won't let me read at a given moment...but it would be fun to have it, so I may be able to persuade it to try! :D
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Two questions:
- Would you rather have epub or mobi? I have both for most of the books.
- Do you want me to cc these to
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Mobi is preferred, but as long as they're unlocked, I've got Calibre so am used to converting everything!
And Gnine says yes please, thank you! (she's got a rather better track record of actually reading things too...)
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There will definitely be additional Biggles content. :D
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I am greatly looking forward to your combined reactions to Hatchet and Looks Back. And incidentally, don't miss Foreign Legionnaire, most of the plot is about something else - Biggles and Ginger go undercover in the French Foreign Legion with the excellently-chosen false IDs of Mr Biggs and Mr Hepple, I am sure von Stalhein looks at them and goes HOW do these clowns keep outwitting me? HOW? - but then the last few chapters are ALL Biggles/EvS content.
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At this point I've read Hatchet + later EvS books and I'm just waiting for Scioscribe and Rachel to catch up! (I LOVED THEM.) And actually, I don't think the foreign legion one was even on my radar as an EvS one, so ... *runs off to download*
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