Book description
The first in George MacDonald Fraser's uproarious Flashman series and
the classic they pay homage to available together for the first time in
ebook format.
Uproarious, nefarious and sociable at the same time, Tom Brown is at
once the typical boy of his generation and the perennial hero. Tom
Brown's School Days charts our protagonist's time at Rugby, taking his
troubled adolescence when he is savagely bullied by the brutal Flashman,
to his departure - with the world at his feet.
In Flashman, meanwhile, George MacDonald Fraser's inspired spin-off from
Hughes' classic, we see Brown's tormentor from an entirely different
perspective. Expelled from Rugby for drunkenness, and none too welcome
at home after seducing his father's mistress, the young Flashman embarks
on a military career with Lord Cardigan's Hussars.
En route to Afghanistan, our hero hones his skills as a soldier,
duellist, imposter, coward and amorist (mastering all 97 ways of Hindu
love-making during a brief sojourn in Calcutta), before being pressed
into reluctant service as a secret agent. His Afghan adventures
culminate in a starring role in that great historic disaster, the
Retreat from Kabul. '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.
