Fandom rec: Worrals series by W.E. Johns
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redscharlach, as we are always trying to increase the size of our fandom (we still hope for 10, but are probably holding around 5). This series of books is about one of the most amazing women you will ever meet (and her fabulous sidekick); they're old and obscure, but if you're looking for something wonderful to get your teeth into, I can't recommend them enough. So, have a rec of the series as a whole!
Worrals: Out To Win Your Heart!
Flight Officer Joan Worralson – Worrals, to her friends – is the titular character of author W.E. Johns' series of eleven 'girl' adventure books, the Worrals series. (Johns is also (far more) famous for his long-running Biggles series, which are well-worth reading but feature almost zero women). Along with her best friend with subtext Betty 'Frecks' Lovell and sometimes romantic interest pilot friend Bill Ashton, Worrals flies aeroplanes through World War II and beyond, always saving the day with common sense, nerves of steel, and style to spare. Thorough summaries and original artwork for all of the books can be found on this site, an excellent resource.
The books themselves are also the most hilarious, exciting, thrillingly-written, subtext-laden, feminist, amazingly kick-ass books you will EVER READ.
We first meet our heroines and friends in Worrals of the W.A.A.F., detailing their adventures in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Great Britain. Worrals has just recently turned eighteen, while Frecks wishes she would hurry up and turn eighteen as well so she can earn her "wings". The girls are described thusly:
Not even her friends could truthfully call Worrals pretty, although her features were regular enough – perhaps too regular: but that she was attractive in a way not easy to define no one cold deny. She was dark; her hair was brown and always tidy; her eyes, the same color, were steady and thoughtful except when softened by a flash of humour – as they often were. They cold also gleam aggressively when things went wrong. […] Of average height, her figure was slim and neat – prim, the lower school had sometimes called her when she had occasion to exercise her authority as Head of the School to check those who would disturb the peace; for, inclined to be studious when not on the playing fields – and there were those who said she took games too seriously – she had no time for horseplay. She carried herself with a quiet air of authority that seemed to come natural to her [...]
It must have been the attraction of opposites that resulted in a mutual affection between her and Betty Lovell, who was fair, casual, and appeared to take nothing seriously [...] Betty's mirror having told her that she had no pretensions to good looks, she wasted no time in trying to devise by artificial means what nature had denied her. The result was a frank untidiness which not even Worrals could cure. Her straight flaxen hair was usually out of control, and her blue eyes laughed at those who advised lemon juice for the freckles which appeared every summer on each side of her small aggressive nose, to provide her with a nickname which she accepted philosophically, as she accepted everything else that came along.
Through this book and the next ten (and one short story), Worrals and Frecks go on to get themselves into one scrape after another, usually through keen powers of observation and an unswerving sense of fair play. The first six books are set during World War II, dealing with everything from stumbling into espionage plots, setting up daring aeroplane passage routes in occupied France, and rescuing stranded nurses from the occupied South Seas, as well as battling institutional sexism and awkwardly engaging in romantic alliances that involve mackintoshes. The remaining books are set post-war, and show us Worrals and Frecks getting involved in adventures in Australia (helping out a fellow female pilot down on her luck), in Egypt (helping to bust a gun-running operation and uprising against the British, becoming dope sellers along the way), going to Africa to find Bill, who has gone missing while mining for gold, and the northern wastelands of Canada to track down a vicious female Nazi. (As an example of a plot, I summarize Worrals Carries On thusly: she discovers a geranium leaf stuck on a pilot's wheel in the first chapter, and in due course of events following on from that, by the last chapter she's rescued 12-odd stranded British soldiers, an Englishman, French priest, and French barmaid working for the British, and captured two deadly dangerous German spies, all while also stealing cars, jumping out of aeroplanes, and having an incredibly awkward evening out with Frecks in a club doubling as a bomb shelter).
In all of the books, Worrals is consistently the voice of truth, fairness, and right; she is a guiding beacon and a hell of a role model, clever and brave and an outstanding pilot. Frecks, for all her self-doubt, fills the role of devoted sidekick brilliantly; frequently surprising herself with her daring and unswerving loyalty. Moreover, both of the girls make it their mission to challenge the status quo – they will not be held back just for being girls, and they consistently prove that they may be the fairer sex, but not the weaker.
So we have amazing, bold women; we have action-adventure plots, full of intrigue, solving mysteries, gun battles and aeroplanes and war and politics and social issues; and then we also have the fact that W.E. Johns' prose is the most fun prose ever, and the books are absolutely dripping with the sort of romantic subtext and even text that is absolute gold to the fannish mind. Personally, I am, simultaneously, a devoted Worrals/Frecks, Worrals/Bill, and Bill/Worrals/Frecks shipper. The books themselves leave no alternative: from Worrals of the Islands, where Worrals loudly and repeatedly declares the uselessness of men, flies off with Frecks to rescue a passel of British nurses, and ends up stranded on a deserted tropical island with Frecks; to Worrals Carries On, where Bill as good as proposes to Worrals and Frecks is left to observe: "Worrals," she said sternly, "what are you doing?" Worrals looked up. "Bill was just helping me off with my mackintosh, that's all," she explained. Frecks shook a warning finger. "What you were doing is not scheduled in the night's operations," she remarked sarcastically; to Worrals In The Wilds, where Bill actually does propose, but Worrals turns him down, preferring a life of adventure with Frecks, but she turns tail and heads for Africa as soon as she believes Bill is in trouble. (We won't discuss the times Frecks thinks Worrals has been killed in an adventure and despondently thinks she no longer has any reason to live, or how often Bill does things like, oh, parachute into occupied France for Worrals). All of this is, as you can see in the excerpts, delivered in breathless, deathless prose, with everyone speaking in adverbs and actions. This only adds to the charm of the books, and can also lead to hilarity with old fashioned terms such as "ejaculating" and reading about a pilot "making hilarious love to Worrals for fifteen minutes." Exclamations such as "strewth!" and "for the love of Mike!" are the icing on the cake.
The two downsides of these books are, one, that there is a fair amount of racism involved – generally explainable either by the time period or by the countries Britain was at war with at the time, but something to watch out for, for sure. I find the books so shockingly and tremendously feminist as to give Johns some leeway, but your mileage obviously may vary. The other downside is that they were never reprinted beyond several hardcover editions each (four of the ones I own are first editions, though in bad shape), and thus fairly hard to source. Worrals on the War-Path and Worrals Flies Again are by far the easiest to come by; Worrals of the W.A.A.F. and Worrals Investigates are much rarer. Abebooks.com or co.uk are both good starting points, as is eBay; I hope in the future to be able to scan one or two of the books to PDF files. For now, I can point you at the only two pieces of Worrals fanfic I have ever seen (if you know of more, let me know!) One is by the lovelypotatofiend, a lightly Worrals/Frecks ficlet that can be found here; the other is my own, written as a gift earlier this year and publicly posted just for this project, a Worrals/Bill ficlet entitled The Kid Stays In The Picture.
In conclusion: daring adventures! Brave and bold women! Aeroplanes! Romantic subplots and subtext! Incredibly amusing prose! All else I can say is that these books, and these characters, Worrals herself especially, own me heart, body, and soul. I hope I've convinced you to go out and experience the joy as well.
redscharlach, as we are always trying to increase the size of our fandom (we still hope for 10, but are probably holding around 5). This series of books is about one of the most amazing women you will ever meet (and her fabulous sidekick); they're old and obscure, but if you're looking for something wonderful to get your teeth into, I can't recommend them enough. So, have a rec of the series as a whole!Worrals: Out To Win Your Heart!
Flight Officer Joan Worralson – Worrals, to her friends – is the titular character of author W.E. Johns' series of eleven 'girl' adventure books, the Worrals series. (Johns is also (far more) famous for his long-running Biggles series, which are well-worth reading but feature almost zero women). Along with her best friend with subtext Betty 'Frecks' Lovell and sometimes romantic interest pilot friend Bill Ashton, Worrals flies aeroplanes through World War II and beyond, always saving the day with common sense, nerves of steel, and style to spare. Thorough summaries and original artwork for all of the books can be found on this site, an excellent resource.
The books themselves are also the most hilarious, exciting, thrillingly-written, subtext-laden, feminist, amazingly kick-ass books you will EVER READ.
We first meet our heroines and friends in Worrals of the W.A.A.F., detailing their adventures in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force in Great Britain. Worrals has just recently turned eighteen, while Frecks wishes she would hurry up and turn eighteen as well so she can earn her "wings". The girls are described thusly:
Not even her friends could truthfully call Worrals pretty, although her features were regular enough – perhaps too regular: but that she was attractive in a way not easy to define no one cold deny. She was dark; her hair was brown and always tidy; her eyes, the same color, were steady and thoughtful except when softened by a flash of humour – as they often were. They cold also gleam aggressively when things went wrong. […] Of average height, her figure was slim and neat – prim, the lower school had sometimes called her when she had occasion to exercise her authority as Head of the School to check those who would disturb the peace; for, inclined to be studious when not on the playing fields – and there were those who said she took games too seriously – she had no time for horseplay. She carried herself with a quiet air of authority that seemed to come natural to her [...]
It must have been the attraction of opposites that resulted in a mutual affection between her and Betty Lovell, who was fair, casual, and appeared to take nothing seriously [...] Betty's mirror having told her that she had no pretensions to good looks, she wasted no time in trying to devise by artificial means what nature had denied her. The result was a frank untidiness which not even Worrals could cure. Her straight flaxen hair was usually out of control, and her blue eyes laughed at those who advised lemon juice for the freckles which appeared every summer on each side of her small aggressive nose, to provide her with a nickname which she accepted philosophically, as she accepted everything else that came along.
Through this book and the next ten (and one short story), Worrals and Frecks go on to get themselves into one scrape after another, usually through keen powers of observation and an unswerving sense of fair play. The first six books are set during World War II, dealing with everything from stumbling into espionage plots, setting up daring aeroplane passage routes in occupied France, and rescuing stranded nurses from the occupied South Seas, as well as battling institutional sexism and awkwardly engaging in romantic alliances that involve mackintoshes. The remaining books are set post-war, and show us Worrals and Frecks getting involved in adventures in Australia (helping out a fellow female pilot down on her luck), in Egypt (helping to bust a gun-running operation and uprising against the British, becoming dope sellers along the way), going to Africa to find Bill, who has gone missing while mining for gold, and the northern wastelands of Canada to track down a vicious female Nazi. (As an example of a plot, I summarize Worrals Carries On thusly: she discovers a geranium leaf stuck on a pilot's wheel in the first chapter, and in due course of events following on from that, by the last chapter she's rescued 12-odd stranded British soldiers, an Englishman, French priest, and French barmaid working for the British, and captured two deadly dangerous German spies, all while also stealing cars, jumping out of aeroplanes, and having an incredibly awkward evening out with Frecks in a club doubling as a bomb shelter).
In all of the books, Worrals is consistently the voice of truth, fairness, and right; she is a guiding beacon and a hell of a role model, clever and brave and an outstanding pilot. Frecks, for all her self-doubt, fills the role of devoted sidekick brilliantly; frequently surprising herself with her daring and unswerving loyalty. Moreover, both of the girls make it their mission to challenge the status quo – they will not be held back just for being girls, and they consistently prove that they may be the fairer sex, but not the weaker.
So we have amazing, bold women; we have action-adventure plots, full of intrigue, solving mysteries, gun battles and aeroplanes and war and politics and social issues; and then we also have the fact that W.E. Johns' prose is the most fun prose ever, and the books are absolutely dripping with the sort of romantic subtext and even text that is absolute gold to the fannish mind. Personally, I am, simultaneously, a devoted Worrals/Frecks, Worrals/Bill, and Bill/Worrals/Frecks shipper. The books themselves leave no alternative: from Worrals of the Islands, where Worrals loudly and repeatedly declares the uselessness of men, flies off with Frecks to rescue a passel of British nurses, and ends up stranded on a deserted tropical island with Frecks; to Worrals Carries On, where Bill as good as proposes to Worrals and Frecks is left to observe: "Worrals," she said sternly, "what are you doing?" Worrals looked up. "Bill was just helping me off with my mackintosh, that's all," she explained. Frecks shook a warning finger. "What you were doing is not scheduled in the night's operations," she remarked sarcastically; to Worrals In The Wilds, where Bill actually does propose, but Worrals turns him down, preferring a life of adventure with Frecks, but she turns tail and heads for Africa as soon as she believes Bill is in trouble. (We won't discuss the times Frecks thinks Worrals has been killed in an adventure and despondently thinks she no longer has any reason to live, or how often Bill does things like, oh, parachute into occupied France for Worrals). All of this is, as you can see in the excerpts, delivered in breathless, deathless prose, with everyone speaking in adverbs and actions. This only adds to the charm of the books, and can also lead to hilarity with old fashioned terms such as "ejaculating" and reading about a pilot "making hilarious love to Worrals for fifteen minutes." Exclamations such as "strewth!" and "for the love of Mike!" are the icing on the cake.
The two downsides of these books are, one, that there is a fair amount of racism involved – generally explainable either by the time period or by the countries Britain was at war with at the time, but something to watch out for, for sure. I find the books so shockingly and tremendously feminist as to give Johns some leeway, but your mileage obviously may vary. The other downside is that they were never reprinted beyond several hardcover editions each (four of the ones I own are first editions, though in bad shape), and thus fairly hard to source. Worrals on the War-Path and Worrals Flies Again are by far the easiest to come by; Worrals of the W.A.A.F. and Worrals Investigates are much rarer. Abebooks.com or co.uk are both good starting points, as is eBay; I hope in the future to be able to scan one or two of the books to PDF files. For now, I can point you at the only two pieces of Worrals fanfic I have ever seen (if you know of more, let me know!) One is by the lovely
potatofiend, a lightly Worrals/Frecks ficlet that can be found here; the other is my own, written as a gift earlier this year and publicly posted just for this project, a Worrals/Bill ficlet entitled The Kid Stays In The Picture.In conclusion: daring adventures! Brave and bold women! Aeroplanes! Romantic subplots and subtext! Incredibly amusing prose! All else I can say is that these books, and these characters, Worrals herself especially, own me heart, body, and soul. I hope I've convinced you to go out and experience the joy as well.
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