Book description
Harry Flashman: the unrepentant bully of Tom Brown's schooldays, now
with a Victoria Cross, has three main talents - horsemanship, facility
with foreign languages and fornication. A reluctant military hero,
Flashman plays a key part in most of the defining military campaigns of
the 19th century, despite trying his utmost to escape them all.
Many have marvelled at General Napier's daring 1868 expedition through
the treacherous peaks and bottomless chasms of Abyssinia to rescue a
small group of British citizens held captive by the mad tyrant Emperor
Theodore. But the vital role of Sir Harry Flashman, V. C., in the
success of this campaign has hitherto gone unrecorded.
Flashman's undeserved reputation for heroism renders him the British
Army's candidate of choice when it comes to skulking behind enemy lines
in Ali Baba attire. After all, who but the great amorist could
contemplate navigating a land populated by hostile tribes and the
loveliest (and most savage) women in Africa, from leather-clad nymphs
with a penchant for torture to a voluptuous barbarian queen with a
reputation for throwing disobliging guests to her pet lions? 'If ever
there was a time when I felt that watcher-of-the-skies-when-a-new-planet
stuff, it was when I read the first Flashman'
P. G. Wodehouse
'There is a little of Flashman in all of us - but not enough.'
Evening Standard
'The Flashman Papers do what all great sagas do - winning new admirers
along the way but never, ever betraying old ones. It is an immense achievement.'
Sunday Telegraph
'In our crass, humourless, anaemic, politically correct age, there
could be no better tonic or treat than the outrageous Flashy's bold
descriptions of action in battle or bedroom. To relish George MacDonald
Fraser is to rediscover the joy of reading.'
Daily Telegraph
'Everything we expect from a Flashman adventure is here: lechery,
double-crossing, real people, the epic poltroonery from which Flashman
emerges as saviour of the hour…my one complaint about the series -
surely the great mock-historical romp of the past half-century - is that
MacDonald Fraser does not add to it often enough.'
Mail on Sunday
'Thanks to Fraser's passion for history, his rare gift for rattling
narrative and his infectious delight in robust, rollicking language, we
can rejoice in a work of genius worthy of being ranked with - there can
be no higher accolade - P. G. Wodehouse'
Daily Telegraph The author of the famous Flashman Papers and the
Private McAuslan stories, George MacDonald Fraser worked on newspapers
in Britain and Canada. In addition to his novels he also wrote numerous
screenplays, most notably The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, and
the James Bond film, Octopussy.
