The UK Sci-Fi TV Book Guide: The Avengers: Heil Harris! by John Garforth

Heil Harris! is an original novel featuring John Steed and Emma Peel.

The Avengers: Heil Harris!

DID HITLER DIE IN A BUNKER OR IS HE CELEBRATING HIS 78TH BIRTHDAY TODAY AND LIVING IN EXILE IN HERTFORDSHIRE...?

...That's the question worrying Steed after meeting a certain 78-year-old Herr Harris who dreams of catastrophe and is clearly connected with mystic rites being practised in the Herts countryside. But Steed soon finds the world facing a far graver danger...

EMMA PEEL — ELECTED DICTATOR OF GREAT BRITAIN!

Publisher Panther Books Format Paperback Publication Date 1967 ISBN N/A Original Price 3/6 Country UK

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Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir: Heil Harris

Publisher Roman Format Paperback Publication Date 1967 ISBN N/A Translator Marie Watkins Country France

Edition Notes

Heil Harris was included in the Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir omnibus in 1995.

Cover image supplied by
Ian Beazley

De Wrekers: Heil Harris

Publisher Bruna Format Paperback Publication Date 1967 ISBN N/A Translator UNKNOWN Country Holland

Cover image of first Berkley Medallion edition

Cover image of second Berkley Medallion edition

The Avengers: Heil Harris!

IS HITLER REALLY DEAD? Or is he about to celebrate his 78th birthday, while living in exile in Hertfordshire...?

JOHN STEED is more than puzzled by the identity of an old man who calls himself Herr Harris, and is involved in the practice of strange, mystic rites in the Herts countryside. But Steed finds, to his shocked surprise, an even greater danger is in store, for...

EMMA PEEL is about to become the dictator of Great Britain!

Publisher Berkley Medallion Format Paperback Publication Date 1967 ISBN N/A Original Price UNKNOWN Book Number 4
Country USA

Edition Notes

Tara King appears on the cover of the Berkley Medallion reprint despite not being in the book.

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Cover image supplied by
Bill Thinnes

Los Vengadores: Peligro Mortal

Publisher Zig-Zag Format Paperback Publication Date 1968 ISBN N/A Translator Lina Larraín Country Chile

General Notes

The Avengers: The Afrit Affair by Keith Laumer

Heil Harris! was the last of four Avengers novels to be written by John Garforth and published by Panther Books.

As things would turn out, this was also the very final original Avengers novel to be published in the UK, although Berkley Medallion in the United States, who had been reprinting Panther's Avengers series, would pick up the baton themselves, and a further five novels were published over the next couple of years, beginning with Keith Laumer's The Afrit Affair and ending in 1969 with Norman Daniels' Moon Express.

The series would also see a change in the line-up as, from The Drowned Queen, Emma Peel was replaced by Tara King who, by then, was being seen in both the UK and United States in Season Seven of the television series.
Other books based on UK sci-fi TV series in which Adolf Hitler appears include:
The New Avengers: The Eagle's Nest
The Tomorrow People in The Lost Gods with Hitler's Last Secret and the Thargon Menace
Doctor Who: Timewyrm — Exodus
Doctor Who: The Shadow in the Glass

Of these, only Timewyrm: Exodus is set during World War Two — all of the others include plots in which Hitler survived the war in some way.

Unsurprisingly, Heil Harris! was never to be published by Heyne in Germany (unlike the other three John Garforth novels), and was also omitted from the Mit Schirm, Charme und Melone omnibus which the company published in 1968 and then re-issued in 1998.