IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 46

In 1956, EAGLE's publisher Hulton Press began to publish a series of novels featuring popular characters from the weekly. These included Dan Dare on Mars, Storm Nelson and the Sea Leopard, Jack O'Lantern and the Fighting Cock and Luck of the Legion's Secret Mission. However, there were also two novels by the well known historical novelist, Henry Treece. These were The Return of Robinson Crusoe, published in 1958 and Wickham and the Armada, published in 1959. They were printed on better paper than the other EAGLE novels and did not follow the layout of their dustjackets. The earlier'character' novels all had yellow jackets with a large red eagle emblazoned on them and a small colour picture depicting a scene from the story set near the top of the page, whereas these pictures show that the Treece book covers were quite different. The Return of Robinson Crusoe contained several colour and black and white illustrations inside the book and Wickham and the Armada contained several black and white illustrations, whereas the character novels each contained only one black and white illustration inside. The Treece novels were also higher priced than the others, retailing at 12s 6d as opposed to 7s 6d. It is impossible to say whether the publication of other new novels was abandoned because of disappointing sales of the Treece books, because Hulton Press sold EAGLE to Odhams Press in 1959 and while they continued to publish larger annual style books, such as EAGLE Sports Annuals, the EAGLE Book of Trains and the EAGLE Book of How it Works, the only new novel they published was the Swift novel, The White Hart Lane Mystery (in 1960), about 'Dixon of Dock Green', who featured in a comic strip in the weekly, which had probably been commissioned by Hulton. Odhams (under their 'Longacre' label) made many changes to the way that EAGLE had operated, scaling back several initiatives, so it is quite possible that the Treece novels sold well. 

The Return of Robinson Crusoe brought back Daniel Defoe's shipwrecked hero, now free from his desert island and living in England in the late seventeenth century. Treece's novel takes him on a perilous search for Henry Morgan's treasure. Defoe himself actually wrote an almost forgotten sequel to his famous book, but Treece ignores the events of the second book and his own story takes place at the same time. As the title suggests, Wickham and the Armada is set in the reign of Elizabeth I and the hero, Giles Wickham undergoes a series of perilous adventures after he becomes a fugitive, following a poaching incident. He then becomes an actor, a soldier a highwayman, a reluctant pirate and a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, before capturing a Spanish Galleon in the Queen's name. 

   

Both books keep the reader's attention, with exciting narratives and both bring the periods they are set in to life. Henry Treece was a successful author of historical novels and particularly those for young readers and his skills in storytelling and conveying authentic period settings are evident in both of his EAGLE novels.