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.
What was Harry Flashman doing on the slopes of Little Bighorn, caught
between the gallant remnant of Custer's 7th Cavalry and the attack of
Sitting Bull's braves? He was trying to get out of the line of fire and
escape yet again with his life (if not his honour) intact.
Here is the legendary and authentic West of Mangas Colorado's Apaches,
of Kit Carson, Custer and Spotted Tail, of Crazy Horse and the Deadwood
stage, gunfighters and gamblers, scoundrels and Indian belles,
enthusiastic widows and mysterious adventuresses. The West as it really
was: terrifying! '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
'Not so much a march as a full-blooded charge, fortified by the usual
lashings of salty sex, meticulously choreographed battle scenes and
hilariously spineless acts of self preservation by Flashman.' Sunday Times
'Not only are the Flashman books extremely funny, but they give
meticulous care to authenticity. You can, between the guffaws, learn
from them.' Washington Post
'A first-rate historical novelist' Kingsley Amis 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.
