Review
'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
Book Description
Product 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.
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.
From the Back Cover
THE FLASHMAN PAPERS 1839-1842
VOLUME ONE
Flashman, soldier, duellist, lover, imposter, coward, cad and hero, triumphs in his first instalment of The Flashman Papers. His adventures as the reluctant secret agent in Afghanistan and his entry into the exclusive company of Lord Cardigan's Hussars culminate in his foulest hour – his part in the historic disaster of the Retreat from Kabul.
This is the story of a blackguard who enjoyed villainy for its own sake. Shameless, exciting, and funny, Flashman's deplorable odyssey is observed with the cynical eye of a scoundrel who was honest only in reporting what he saw. He makes all other black sheep look respectably grey.
'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
'Not only are the 'Flashman' books extremely funny, but they give meticulous care to authenticity. You can, between guffaws, learn from them.'
WASHINGTON POST
'Mr Fraser is a skilful and meticulous writer, twice as good as Buchan, and twenty times better than Fleming'
AUBERON WAUGH, 'Evening Standard'
About the Author
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 wrote numerous screenplays, most notably The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, and the James Bond film Octopussy. George Macdonald Fraser died in January 2008 at the age of 82.
