Hopelessness took him in its grip. He knew he was wandering in circles but he had ceased to care. All he wanted to do was drink. His skin began to smart. His feet were on fire...

It's the Second World War and Biggles is in the desert, defending the vital air-route from the West coast of Africa to the Middle East. Urgent stores, dispatches and important officials and officers are regularly flown over this route, but lately a number of planes have unaccountably failed to arrive at their destinations. They've disappeared on route and Biggles is there to find out why - and stop it happening again.

Captain W. E. Johns was born in Hertfordshire in 1893. He flew with the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War and made a daring escape from a German prison camp in 1918. Between the wars he edited Flying and Popular Flying and became a writer for the Ministry of Defence. The First Biggles story, Biggles the Camels are Coming was published in 1932, and W. E. Johns went on to write a staggering 102 Biggles titles before his death in 1968.

Biggles is back! And with new retro-style covers he'll be bigger than ever!