Children’s books have always been full of adventure, as far back as Enid Blyton with her Famous Five, Secret Seven and Adventure books. By the time the 1970s rolled around, some books were quite topical, like The Tiger Gang and the Hijackers.
The author, Dafne Bidwell, seems to have had an adventurous life herself. She was born in England, grew up in Ireland, joined the British Secret Service (MI6) and operated in Asia, lived in Malaysia and finally settled in Australia.
The Tiger Gang And The Hijackers
What is the book about? Well, the back cover blurb puts it succinctly. “The six members of the Tiger Gang, en route to Ireland from Australia, discover that their flight destination has been abruptly altered to a Middle Eastern desert. The kidnappers are desperate men; this is an emergency which calls for the utmost in courage and quick thinking on the part of the Tiger Gang.”
Dawson’s Field Hijackings
Between 6 and 13 September 1970, several aircraft were hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. First a TWA Boeing 707 and a Swissair Douglas DC-8 were flown to Jordan. An attempt on an El Al Boeing 707 was foiled, with one hijacker killed and another captured. Two other hijackers who didn’t make it onto that flight hijacked a Pan Am Boeing 747 instead. That ended up in Beirut and was blown up on the runway.
This Is In A Children’s Book?!
In the book, the children take a Qantas flight to London and then an “Air Leinster” plane to Dublin. On the way, it is hijacked and they end up in the Middle East at Dawson’s Field. The remains of the three destroyed aircraft are integral to the plot.
The story is quite gripping in parts, with the hijackers threatening people with guns, tying up a pilot, having hand grenades, trying to blow up the plane the kids are on, among other things. When I first read it as a kid, I remember the part where the aircraft almost stalls as a heart in the mouth moment!
Clearly Aer Lingus declined to give their permission to use their name in the book. Not surprising, since it’s one of their planes that is hijacked. The Irish airline became Air Leinster instead, though the illustrations clearly show an Aer Lingus BAC One Eleven!
Overall Thoughts
For some reason, The Tiger Gang and the Hijackers popped back into my mind recently. I picked up a copy on Amazon and re-read it once it arrived, which only took a couple of hours. It struck me how different children’s books are today. Not a wand in sight here!
The author did her research very well, with everything pretty much accurate as to how it would have been had it actually happened. You can’t really ask for more than that and it makes for a decent read.
Have you read The Tiger Gang and the Hijackers? Perhaps you have other examples of gritty children’s adventure books you may have read? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Eduard Marmet on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Dawson’s Field photo via The New York Post.
So nice to read this. My mother actually wrote this series and my daughter brought your review to our attention. Yes loved the books and mother wandered far and wide as an author giving talks on the process of writing.
I am really delighted this was found and passed on to you. Your mother was an excellent writer. Upon re-reading this again, the tension I felt as a kid reading the stall part was just as gripping as ever. It’s masterful writing! I also remember reading the other book, The Tiger Gang and the Car Thieves as a kid. Perhaps I should try to pick up a copy.