Flight Officer Joan Worralson, better known as "Worrals", is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 created by W. E. Johns

W. E. Johns

William Earl Johns was an English pilot and writer of adventure stories, usually written under the name Captain W. E. Johns. He is best remembered as the creator of the ace pilot and adventurer Biggles.-Early life:...

, more famous for his series of books about Biggles

Biggles

"Biggles" , a pilot and adventurer, is the title character and main hero of the Biggles series of youth-oriented adventure books written by W. E. Johns....

.

Worrals was a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF)

Women's Auxiliary Air Force

The Women's Auxiliary Air Force , whose members were invariably referred to as Waafs , was the female auxiliary of the Royal Air Force during World War II, established in 1939. At its peak strength, in 1943, WAAF numbers exceeded 180,000, with over 2,000 women enlisting per week.A Women's Royal Air...

 in the Second World War. She has a sidekick called Betty "Frecks" Lovell.

Johns modelled Worrals on two female aviators of his acquaintance, Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson CBE, was a pioneering English aviator. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, Johnson set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s...

 — whom he knew as "Johnnie" Mollison, from which Worrals' name is presumed to derive — and Pauline Gower

Pauline Gower

Pauline Mary de Peauly Gower , married name Pauline Fahie, was a British pilot and writer who headed the female branch of the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War....

.

Novels

• Worrals of the W.A.A.F. (1941)
• Worrals Carries On (1942)
• Worrals Flies Again (1942)
• Worrals on the Warpath (1943)
• Worrals Goes East (1944)
• Worrals of the Islands (1945)
• Worrals in the Wilds (1947)
• Worrals Down Under (1948)
• Worrals Goes Afoot (1949)
• Worrals in the Wastelands (1949)
• Worrals Investigates (1950)

Other media

• In Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
  The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
  The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an original graphic novel in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. It was the last volume of the series to be published by DC Comics. Although the third book to be...
  
  , MI5 picked her to lead an incarnation of the League as replacement for deserter Mina Murray
  Mina Harker
  Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker is a fictional character in Bram Stoker's 1897 horror novel Dracula.- In the novel :She begins the story as Miss Mina Murray, a young school mistress who is engaged to Jonathan Harker, and best friends with Lucy Westenra...
  
  , as well as to draw female attention to the military. 'Frecks' is implied to be more than a sidekick, and she rebuffs the advances from William Samson, Jr., the Wolf of Kabul
  Wolf of Kabul
  William Sampson or Samson, the Wolf of Kabul, was a character in British boys' papers published by D. C. Thomson & Co. He first appeared in The Wizard in 1922.-Publication history:...
  
  . Worrals's League is finally dissolved after their first mission ends in catastrophic failure.

Further reading

• Edwards, Owen Dudley, "The Battle of Britain and Children's Literature" in Paul Addison & Jeremy A. Crang (eds), The Burning Blue: a new history of the Battle of Britain. London: Pimlico, 2000. ISBN 0712664750
• Edwards, Owen Dudley, British Children's Fiction of the Second World War. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. ISBN 0748616519